Patrick Kielty has described how his career developed from a 'terrifying' appearance at a school Christmas concert to national TV fame. In a BBC Radio Ulster Talkback special, the comedian explains how a teacher told him he would be performing a skit at the show. 'If you don't do it, I'm dropping you from the football team for the rest of the year,' he says he was told.
That was not a threat to be taken lightly, as young Kielty was a good enough Gaelic footballer to play for Down minors, although he makes no claims to sporting prowess. 'To put it in perspective, I was on the Down minors for three years. The year that I didn't play they won the All-Ireland. The two years that I did play they were nothing. Make of that what you will,' he said.
Listening to tapes of Billy Connolly in the car with his dad was one of the inspirations for his future career. His schoolboy speciality was doing impressions of the Scottish comedian and the boxer Barry McGuigan. After studying psychology at Queen's University Belfast, he made his first serious steps to stardom as compere at the Empire Comedy Club in the city.
Kielty has put on record the terrible effect his father's killing during the Troubles had on his family. Jack Kielty was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in January 1988. 'For a long time I didn't want to talk about my dad, so many other people went through so much worse than me,' he told the programme. This changed when he decided that it 'might help someone to tell their story'.
Despite travelling and living around the world, including a time in California, Kielty has now discovered that his childhood feelings for his home village of Dundrum have been confirmed. 'It is actually what I thought it was when I was a kid, so you come full circle,' he said.
