‘Dublin was no city for gay young men’ – the Father Ted star who thrived in London

Fr Ted addresses the priests to tell them the plane is going to crash and there are only two parachutes on board. He asks his fellow clerics for a reason why they should get one of the parachutes.

Fr Briefly is among the first to respond. In a line which was last year voted third in a poll of the best one-liners in the classic comedy, he stands up and says: “I think I should get the parachute because I am great. In fact, I think I should get both the parachutes in case one of them doesn’t work.”

Duggan, a respected theatre and television actor, was cremated last week following a memorial service in London. England had been his home for more than 60 years because he had to leave his beloved Dublin after falling in love with another man.

He met Charles Zarb when the latter was studying at Trinity College in the 1950s. As last week’s service was told, “Dublin was no city for two gay young men” and they moved to London, where they both worked as actors.

In a tragic twist, they died within weeks of each other. Patrick passed away on March 8 this year, just two days before his 87th birthday, while Charles died in April. Friends had hoped they might have a joint funeral service, but it wasn’t possible. Last Wednesday afternoon, at Golders Green Crematorium, Patrick’s relatives and friends gathered to remember a “larger than life character”.

He was born on March 10, 1934, the youngest of John and Claire Duggan’s three children. Patrick was predeceased by his brother Jack and sister Marie.

During a “happy childhood” in Clontarf, the service was told, Patrick attended school at Belvedere College before training to be an actor at the Gate Theatre.

He went on to perform in many plays in Dublin’s Gate, Abbey and Gaiety theatres as well as touring with productions across Ireland.

One of the plays he performed in was Brendan’s Behan’s The Quare Fellow and the famous The Auld Triangle song from the show was played at Wednesday’s service in his honour.

After relocating to London, he continued his theatre work and also took on roles in several popular TV shows, including Z-Cars, EastEnders and, of course, Father Ted. However, mourners were told that his most lucrative piece of work came when he was part of Captain Birdseye’s crew on one of the famous adverts for Bird’s Eye frozen fish.

As well as acting, Duggan was also an author and wrote three children’s books and one about Irish Travellers. When he died, he had been working on a play about the life of Jane Austen, one of his literary heroes.

Patrick and Charles, who made their home at Belsize Park in the Camden area of London, became civil partners in November 2007.

In recent years, Charles’s health had deteriorated and Patrick was “devoted” to caring for him. Family and those closest to him were the most important thing in Patrick’s life, his nephew, former Irish rugby international Hugo MacNeill, told Wednesday’s service.

“Patrick was a truly remarkable man and he was a wonderful uncle,” he said. “He adored all his family and took great pride in their adventures and achievements. He remembered every birthday and every Christmas and put the rest of us to shame.

“He loved to laugh and joke and I can see him now, head thrown back in laughter often at his own expense and often with a glass in his hand. He loved company and he had time for absolutely everyone. He was a very kind man.

“I recall going with him to the small shops in the neighbourhood around Belsize Park and he seemed like he knew everybody who worked there. To him, everybody had a story to tell and at some stage he would stop to hear their story.

“He had a special interest in all those people who came from different immigrant communities, who came from different countries and places. It was clear from the reactions that he was hugely respected and very genuinely loved and liked.”

Despite having lived in London for so long, Patrick, his nephew said, always had a special connection with Ireland.

“He loved Dublin and its humour and he always had a font of stories about growing up there.

“He was very proud of his Irishness, especially when it came to sporting or cultural events, but he did so while completely immersing himself in London and England which was to be his home for most of his life. It was never a staged Irishness, in fact the very opposite. He had huge affection and respect for the queen.”

MacNeill said his uncle had enjoyed his varied career. “He was also very proud of his acting and writing, while also being very modest about his own achievements, but always loved to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of others and that’s what made him happy, celebrating what others were doing. That was one of the reasons which made him so special and so warm.

“Growing up a gay man when he did was not always easy at all. He moved to London where he was to spend the rest of his life with Charles. Charles was the absolute centre of his world. Although I am sure there must have been some, I can’t remember a cross word between them.

“It’s very difficult to imagine Patrick without Charles and vice versa and so without being over sentimental we are consoled by the fact that neither had to endure the loss of the other on their own because I don’t know how they would have managed to do that. We are so grateful to them both, so grateful for the memories we have.”

---