THREE IRISH COMEDIANS WALK INTO A BAR...

Sharon Horgan

Catastrophe just pulled off what The Guardian called “the greatest ending since the Sopranos” and the showstopping conclusion was just the latest triumph for a woman who has been as busy as Dame Street in rush hour lately.

A witty, prolific Tweeter, Horgan was, thanks to Pulling, a voice of Generation Rent long before Girls. She writes about difficult subject matter — witness Catastrophe’s storyline about an ultrasound that reveals possible foetal abnormalities.

No less than Sarah Jessica Parker recently told The New Yorker that Horgan’s “affection for the dark, sad, and ridiculous that reveals itself in painful circumstances” were what drew her to the Irish comedy writer. We couldn’t agree more.

Chris O’Dowd

A man of Chris O’Dowd’s wit was always destined to be a comedy star — the Roscommon man’s brilliant performance in The IT Crowd made it one of the best comedies of the noughties. His subsequent transformation to Hollywood love interest, in Bridesmaids and Girls, was a little less likely, but he embraced megastardom with aplomb via many hilarious chat show appearances.

His creation of the wonderfully funny Moone Boy, which ran for three years, was proof of what most of us suspected — that O’Dowd is as fine a writer as he is a comic actor.

Brendan O’Carroll

Critics might sniff at Mrs Brown’s Boys — Brexit has taught us that the great British public can’t necessarily be trusted — but you have to respect a man who hauled himself up from a local cabaret scene to become one of the great sitcom stars of all time.

Mrs Brown’s Boys

doesn’t try to make clever comments on the zeitgeist, it settles for just making people laugh. In an era when complex geopolitical matters seem to dominate the relentless 24-hour news cycle, perhaps it’s no surprise that’s what people want.