Following his success two years ago with ‘The Only Viking in the Village, in which he delved into his Viking past and was dubbed Thor of the Midlands , the irrepressible Neil Delamere is back to add a humorous spin to another historical subject - this time taking on the patron saint of Irishness himself, St Patrick.
Currently touring the country with his new show DelaMere Mortal, Neil is a recurring fixture at the Edinburgh fringe festival and hosted Just for Laughs at the Montreal festival. For a generation of comedy fans, he first became a household name on RTE’s The Panel.
As the country prepares itself for the unstoppable juggernaut of St Patrick’s festival celebrations coming our way later this week, Mr Delamere took the time to chat with IFTN about the reasons for his pursuit of the truth behind the St Patrick legend.
Mr Delamere, what inspired you to take on St Patrick as a figure worthy of closer investigation? We discovered from the Vikings programme that with a little bit of research you can debunk the historical myths established in people’s heads or expand upon them to find where they came from. We found that St Patrick had some similar characteristics. Everyone thinks he banished the snakes; everyone thinks he went to the Slemish Mountain in Antrim; everyone thinks he brought Christianity to Ireland and none of those things are necessarily true. St Patrick is an amazing figure that everyone knows. And it was a case of discovering that maybe these things aren’t quite the way we thought they were…
Would it be fair to say that the myth is more important than the truth? Oh, undoubtedly. The myth is probably more important than the truth, but the truth is more interesting actually. What I learned from the show was that in every period in history from the time Patrick died - to 1,500 years after he died - that people used him to their own ends. He was used to establish the primacy of the church in Armagh, to establish an Irish identity in America in the 1800’s, and to highlight the new independent Ireland from the 1920's onwards. St Patrick was used in whatever way he had to be used. The myth that was overlaid onto him has been very important since he lived.
If I described the story of a man - and I didn’t even say who he was - who was kidnapped, dragged into slavery, escaped against all odds, and then decided to come back to the very people who had kidnapped him and, not only does he win them over, but becomes the most famous ‘Irish person’ ever, well that alone is a dramatic enough story in itself! It’s an amazing story! The rest of the stuff is just colour and some of the colour is absolutely hilarious.
For ‘There’s Something about Patrick’, you attempted to recreate what it must have been like to live like St Patrick, which included walking barefoot and simulating being kidnapped. You even had a close encounter with snakes. Would you care to elaborate on what that was like? Snakes were introduced, shall we say. Neil isn’t too happy with snakes. I can only talk about this in the third person because I was that worried I might get bitten. I didn’t and I’m sure if you saw the snake, it would be slightly smaller than I imagined it in my head. A show like this has to be kept light while being entirely historically accurate. Patrick mentioned women a lot in his writings, about them being good looking and throwing their jewels at him from the altar. Based on this, we may have possibly imagined what an unbelievably charismatic ‘Dickie Rock’ St Patrick might have looked like. We never get away from the issue but try and make it as light and entertaining as possible.
So you interspersed the factual history bits with comedy sketches in between? That’s exactly right. When we were doing the Viking show, one of the contributors, a very esteemed academic, said that was a beautiful piece of stealth learning, which I think is a great phrase. Without realising it, people walk into the pub the next day and are able to ream off five facts about something they didn’t know they learnt.
Are you concerned that some might find taking on a beloved saint to be blasphemous? No, I wouldn’t be concerned about that. The show is about Patrick the man and Patrick the historical figure, based upon the social material in his own writings. If you were to take any religious figure, there’s always a small chance that someone could consider it blasphemous. Everything is historically accurate and we can stand over everything we said. Throughout the making of the show I became more impressed by the man himself rather than all the accoutrements of the story.
Are there any other historical figures you’d like to take on next time? One I’d love to do next is Cúchulainn. Obviously the man is a myth but I want to look at why the myth existed, who wrote it and who changed it. It would tell us a lot about the people at the time who created it, which is more sociologically interesting. Also, who doesn’t want the chance to dress up like Cúchulainn and run around the countryside? Never underestimate the nine-year-old boy inside you, who wants to go off on Viking ships and go mind sheep on the mountain somewhere. There’s always that element and hopefully the playfulness comes across.
During the making of the programme, what was the reaction like from the people you encountered on your travels? Some of what people think about St Patrick is surprising. We had one young American lady who thought that St Patrick was famous for kicking the English out of Ireland. And we didn’t disavow her of that notion. We just said 'thanks very much. That’s grand. We may be airing your opinion soon enough…’ The propaganda about him! It’s amazing how information gets mangled down through the years.
Any plans for this year’s St Patrick’s Day? I’ll be away for it doing some gigs down in Kildare. I was involved in last year’s St Patrick’s Day parade but I can’t say any more than that. It will be revealed in the show and once was enough…
‘There’s Something About Patrick’ airs at 10:15pm this Thurs on RTE One.
