Everywhere I go, I see my father Dermot
THE son of Father Ted star Dermot Morgan has said he sees his father everywhere, as the 23rd anniversary of the actor’s death nears.
The comedian died of a heart attack aged 45 on February 28, 1998 – the anniversary of which falls tomorrow.
Rob Morgan said of his dad yesterday: ‘I was only strolling down through my street here in Dublin 8 and at the end of the road there’s a series of advertising boards, and there’s one for the Wax Museum – and there’s Dermot’s face looking at me.
‘So even on a stroll 23 years
‘We’ll always have great memories’
later I can’t escape his face’
He also told Newstalk: ‘I have to recognise how lucky I am that people hold him in high regard, and that he’s always going to be with me. Whether it’s on the TV, whether it’s in the personal memories that I have, or whether it’s on things like an advertisement for the Wax Museum.’
Rob also said he and his wife have gone into the Wax Museum a few times and ‘stood next to the Dermot statue and... taken our photos and had a bit of fun with it’. He added: ‘It’s great. I always used to complain about never having a picture of Dermot with me as an adult, and I was able to go in and recreate one – albeit with virtual Dermot’.
He said his father could have turned his hand to anything, adding that he was ‘just a very smart, very funny guy and he could play that role [Fr Ted] whatever way he needed to’.
Rob said that while losing his father so early was tough, he focuses on the positives.
He said: ‘Time being a great healer, it’s a bit of a con – there’ll forever be a Dermotshaped hole in my life, it’ll just get a little bit smaller but it’ll always be there. He wasn’t there when I got married, he wasn’t there when my brothers graduated from college or when I graduated from college... but we’ll always have the great memories, and it’s much easier after a bit of time to just celebrate the good times you had rather than dwell on the negative.’
This year’s Tedfest, which celebrates the show, has been moved to October – but will commemorate Dermot by holding an online costume challenge for charity tomorrow in his honour.