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LAST UPDATE | 11 Jul 2019
COMEDIAN BRENDAN GRACE has died aged 68, his representative has confirmed.
The veteran comedian, who regularly drew large audiences to his live shows, announced earlier this month that he was cancelling a number of tour dates in July and August so he could receive medical treatment.
He was initially hospitalised with pneumonia but it was later discovered he was also suffering from lung cancer.
Brendan’s business manager, Tom Kelly, issued the following statement:
“Brendan Grace passed away peacefully early this morning at surrounded by his loving family. Aged 68 he will be fondly remembered by his legion of fans at home and abroad.”
After starting his career as a musician in the 1960s, Grace went on to widespread standup and TV success in Ireland.
His performances of much-loved routines like ‘Father of the Bride’ and ‘Chinese Takeaway’ built a loyal audience for his shows and his one-off specials consistently achieved high ratings for TV3, prompting the broadcaster to commission an animated special based on his schoolboy character ‘Bottler’.
Grace won over a new generation of fans in the 1990s as a result of his turn as malevolent priest Fr Fintan Stack in the Father Ted series.
Over the course of his career he also toured with Frank Sinatra and John Denver.
He had a number one hit in Ireland with his song Combine Harvester – later covered by The Wurzels in the UK, where it also reached number one.
Even after he was firmly established as a comedian, music regularly featured in his act – he often closed shows with renditions of songs like Dublin in the Rare Ould Times.
He lived in Florida in recent years, making regular returns to Ireland to perform.
Tom Kelly told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland the comedian was “one of the great entertainers of this era”.
“You could see at every show how people just warmed to him.
On nights when the audience might not have been very warm – that very seldom happened – he could turn around, pick up his guitar and sing a song with great authority.
Said Kelly: “All in all, we can look back with pride at Brendan’s lifetime. Great family man, very close to his family. Just adored by his fans all over the country and indeed abroad as well. His popularity spread right around the world.”
President Michael D Higgins said as a comedian Grace’s “spontaneous wit and his sense of timing, his obvious delighting in interaction with his audiences, meant that Brendan’s sense of humour was drawing from, and itself a profound contribution to, the deep wellspring of Irish wit”.
“His best-loved characters will endure, precisely because they are both recognisable and representative of the experiences lived and recalled by Irish people of all ages.
As President of Ireland, I express my deepest condolences to his wife Eileen, his children Bradley, Melanie, Brendan and Amanda, and to his wider family and his friends, and all who valued his acuity and sharp sense of humour.
Fellow comedian and Mrs Browns Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll tweeted this morning that Grace had opened doors “for so many of us” in showbusiness “and leaves a legacy of love and laughter that will echo through this land”.
O’Carroll added “we will all mourn his passing”.
Rest peacefully Bottler, you’ve earned it.
Comedian June Rogers told Morning Ireland that Brendan will be “sorely missed by a lot of people in Ireland”.
“He was very kind to me when I started out. There was one song he had called Bridget McCann and I remember contacting him and asking him would it be possible for me to use it. I was doing a show at the time and he very kindly gave it to me.
“He was very much a wonderful family man.”
Brendan was cast in the Father Ted series as the aforementioned Fr Fintan Stack, a role that brought him to a new audience. The show’s co-creator Arthur Matthews told The Ryan Tubridy Show this morning that he “always liked the idea of casting people I knew as a kid and was a fan of”.
“We didn’t write it [the part] with him in mind but he did an audition. It was different from what we expected but it was very funny.
“It was more subtle really and a bit more passive-aggressive than outwardly aggressive. It was really sinister,” Matthews joked.
He was a legend, he really was. It’s a big loss definitely.
RTÉ Director-General, Dee Forbes described Brendan as one of Ireland’s original funnymen and pioneer of Irish comedy.
“While there are now many Irish comedians who are household names, Brendan emerged as a talent during an era when there were very few established Irish comedians.
Importantly, he also paved the way for many of the wonderful comedians this country has produced over the last 20 years or so and leaves behind a legacy he and his family can be proud of. He will be deeply missed. My thoughts and those of his many friends and fans across RTÉ are with his family and friends at this sad time.
In October 2018, to mark Brendan’s 50 years in the entertainment business, RTÉ screened the documentary, Brendan Grace – Funny Man. The documentary will be repeated at 10.15pm on RTÉ One tonight.
Dublin City Council has opened a book of condolence for fans to pay their respects to the much loved Dublin comedian.
Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe described Brendan as “a true Dubliner who captured the unique Dublin sense of humour and brought it to audiences at home and across the world”.
The Mansion House will be open to the public today from 12 noon until 5pm and from 10am to 5pm tomorrow.
Brendan is survived by his wife Eileen, children and grandchildren.
- With reporting from Adam Daly
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Only temporarily the Dutch KCT and the Australian SAS are on the ground are securing the area
There is no way the rebels would allow Western special forces into the area
How would they know, special forces aren’t going to announce their arrival in advance, they’re already 1.5 to 2.0 kilometres off the perimeter of the debris field watching and waiting.
It will be pretty obvious who they are when they get to the site and start looking at the debris.
Good man Neil you should have read the post your responding to
Special forces don’t engage, they watch and wait, unseen and unheard, even if you’re standing right on top of them, but you’ll never get that close because at 1500 metres you never hear the shot… and your comrades can’t return fire because they have no idea where it came from.
If you know they’re there, I’m pretty sure anyone who matters knows they’re there. So somebody’s announced it!
Poor Boggy isn’t the sharpest tool on the box. He’s assuring us that the special forces are securing the area but nobody knows about it except himself. Of course one wonders boggy why the whole thing has then been called off. But I forgot boggy doesn’t engage with conspiracy loons like myself so I guess well never know lol Go back to sleep boggy there are more inane threads for you like 20 things I hate about Monday or something lol
Is this some video game your playing because it aint reality
Ah Jaysus, will the whole Ukraine Army invade the site and clear it. It’s not like Russia will invade seen as it’s Ukraine territory
Oh dear now you’ve done it Celtic, it’s like that scene in Jurassic park where we see the ripples in the glass of water, the conspiracy loons are coming cause they heard you.
It’s a pity the Kiev gov dramatically increased its assault upon the rebel positions at exactly the same time MH17 came down and hasn’t let up since. Perhaps the Kiev gov could lay off the shelling to allow an investigation? This is the same gov which won’t release the ATC transcripts or tell us why the flight was diverted over a war zone or why one of their fighter jets was tailing the flight.
John. The flight was not diverted. I challenge you to provide proof that it was.
And you still haven’t answered by question in the previous thread.
So I will ask it again here for a third time.
How did a missile fired from behind hit the Front of the fuselage of MH17? An R60 heat seeking missile has only a 3lbs warhead. Enough to take out one engine and not much more. And as a SU25 cannot carry the larger radar guided R77 which even if it was fired by say a MiG 29, how would it have missed the largest radar return coming from that direction the Tail section? Now we know that the crash investigators at the site have confirmed the the Front of the planes fuselage was where the explosion occured. So will you answer the question please.
Excuse me Mick Jordan but can you point out where I claimed MH17 was hit by an air to air missile? I am simply asking why was the fighter jet present tailing the the flight?
So John how did MH17 get shot down?
And How does an SU25 Fly 6km above its maximum unlaiden flight ceiling?
Now you say Russia has produced Satellite photos of an SU25 behind MH17. Now a satellite photo is 2 dimensional. It can tell you how far a plane was behind MH17. But it cannot tell you the altitude unless the plane was sitting on the ground.
So lets say just for arguments sake an SU25 was behind MH25 flying at its maximum unlaiden ceiling 7000 mtrs, 4km below MH17. Now the guy sitting at the Fire Radar in the SA11 would see two blips on his Radar screen at 2 different altitudes and 2 different strengths the larger plane giving the stonger signal. Now the operators in the SA11 launcher would deduce that the smaller return was a Military jet and because they are expecting to see large transport planes like the ones they had previously shot down assume that the larger one was an An 26. So he says to himself what is the bigger prize. The slower less manuverable transporter full of troops or equipment or the agile Fighter.
And John where is the Proof that the plane was diverted that I asked you to produce?
How many times does it have to be said, an Su-25 is NOT a fighter plane.
Sry Jason. I had to use term “Fighter” just to get my point across as the other side seem to be incapable of distinguishing an Air Superiority Fighter and a Close Support Ground Attack Aircraft.
Wasn’t directed at yourself Mick, it was directed at John and indirectly Horgay who want to use sensationalist language rather than facts.
If Putin had a humane bone in his body he would see to it that MH17 crash site was properly cordoned off and thoroughly searched for remaining 98 innocent victims of that atrocity in Eastern Ukraine.
A few week’s cessation of hostilities there would show some degree of humanity and allow air accident investigators carry out their work.
Ukraine has been at this a while now. It’s as if they have something to hide re the awful plane crash.
Ukraine prevented the OSCE monitors from deploying to the crash site for two days definitely and probably three by shelling the area heavily.
Ukraine refuses to say why Ukrainian secret police confiscated air traffic data immediately after the crash.
Ukraine refuses to even admit why one of its military fighters approached the civilian plane immediately prior to the crash.
Ukraine refuses to answer questions as to why it moved it’s buk anti aircraft system out of the area immediately after the crash despite saying they had no such systems in the area.
All these lies. These are fundamental questions that our Western media will not answer never mind debate. It is much worse than what Wells predicted, much worse.
Horgay. Ukraine did not prevent anyone from deploying to the site that is an outright lie. The Terrorists did as shown by video evidence and statements by the OSCE monitors themselves.
There have been 2 confessions by Terrorist leaders that they Shot down MH17. There are also taped phone conversations between Terrorists and their GRU handlers about their shooting down of MH17. There is also the confession of one the Terrorists that they did have 3 SA 11 launchers and got them from Russia. We also have video of the debris immediately after the attack falling from the sky where Locals can be heard in the background saying “Its a good job we got those Missiles”.
“Ukraine refuses to say why Ukrainian secret police confiscated air traffic data immediately after the crash.”
Standard practice to examine ATC tapes as part of the investigation.
“Ukraine refuses to even admit why one of its military fighters approached the civilian plane immediately prior to the crash.”
The aircraft was NOT a fighter jet, nor could it even hope to follow MH17 as it simply could not fly at the same altitude as MH17.
“Ukraine refuses to answer questions as to why it moved it’s buk anti aircraft system out of the area immediately after the crash despite saying they had no such systems in the area.”
Does a sovereign nation need to explain the movements of its military? The pro-Russians were very quick to say that the Russians didn’t have to explain the movements of their military when the Russians held large drills on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Animals the lot of them,bullies with weapons,put down ur guns and bombs and fight ya windy nutter pigs,should be all melted in tar
And your point is?
have your say