A PHOTO CHALLENGE OF PLACES WE SIT…OR MIGHT SIT…OR ART ABOUT SITTING
This is for all you Father Ted fans!!
The wonderful Dermot Morgan, one of our most beloved alternative comedians, made a career out of satirizing Irish politics and rose to international fame playing Father Ted – a priest with quite a weakness for money and fame who is exiled to a remote island off the Irish coast!
The Joker’s Chair was erected in Merrion Square (ironically close to Government buildings and the targets of his satire!!) in 2002, four years after Morgan died suddenly, aged 46, in February 1998.
Morgan’s partner approached artist Catherine Greene to create a memorial that would capture his comical spirit. The brief was to produce a piece that was allegorical rather than a representative image.
Greene saw Morgan as a modern day seer who never feared to tell the truth – clever and blistering. She likened him to the Shakespearean Fool who was always close to the throne and dispensed unfiltered truths to the morally blind royal court.
She wanted the public to engage with the artwork so she created a bronze throne. The balls on top suggest the hat of a jester. The eye underneath the seat represents the knowing eye!
A nearby plaque reads: ….
and all the rest is laughter
laughter liberating
laughter to be remembered.
XingfuMama posts every Friday morning…..
*Create a post with a photo of places one sits or might sit, or art about sitting, and maybe a little background or story about the spot or a picture of the view.
*Add a tag “Pull up a seat’.
*Add a link to your post in the comment section, either by writing a comment with your URL or by creating a pingback.
I’m a big Father Ted fan, so I’m happy to see that Dermot Morgan got a well-deserved memorial like this.
And it’s a nice tribute – I think he would approve!
Now that is an interesting chair!
It’s good to know the story behind it…
Oh yes!
Cool chair.
I think it would look good anywhere….
Very interesting post. Thanks.
Thanks Pat – glad you enjoyed…..
RIP the lovely man who brought so much laughter into people’s lives.
Hear! Hear!
Wow! Was it really so long ago that he died? My favourite episode is “Going to America”, in which Father Ted is “headhunted” to transfer to Los Angeles. “Is it really as false and artificial as everyone says it is?” he asks a priest from Beverly Hills. On being assured that this is, indeed, the case, he replies, “I’d love that!”
😅 😂 🤣
Here’s one of mine….
‘That’s the great thing about Catholicism – it’s very vague and no-one knows what its really all about’!
Fascinating.
😘