Father Dougal McGuire

Father Dougal McGuire is one of the three priests living on Craggy Island in Ireland and is the deuteragonist of Father Ted.

He is played by Ardal O'Hanlon who also voiced Robbie in the Robbie the Reindeer films and Thermoman in Series 1-5 of My Hero.

Character

Dougal is shown to be a generally unintelligent, dim-witted and ignorant young priest (he once merrily confessed that "the lights are on but there's no one home"), Dougal has no belief in or even a remote understanding of Catholism, once admitting that he believes more in Darth Vader and Phantom of the Opera than he does in God. Father Ted reminds him to write down people that don't exist on a list, such as Magnum, P.I. and the Loch Ness Monster. He revealed to Ted that he does not believe in the afterlife and that he wishes he shared Ted's own faith in the concept. Dougal believes Catholicism to be a "bit of a laugh" which is not to be taken seriously and expresses much confusion and doubt as to the origins of mankind as described in the Bible. He hints that he believes in extraterrestrial life and claims to have once seen a ghost, which was revealed to actually be Ted.

Quite how he became a member of the clergy, or how he ended up on Craggy Island, remains a mystery, although in one episode, Bishop Brennan mentions that the latter was punishment for an incident at Blackrock aboard a Sealink ferry in which the lives of a group of nuns were left irreparably damaged. In "Grant unto Him Eternal Rest", Ted sarcastically suggests that he managed to enter the priesthood via a "collect twelve crisp packets and become a priest" promotion.

Quirks

In keeping with his childish personality, Dougal has a great passion for rollerblading and often appears out of sync with reality. On occasions, when asleep,he dreams he is taking part in well known UK gameshows, such as Countdown or Blockbusters' which annoys Ted as he is shouting out the answers very loudly. He famously sleeps in a Republic of Ireland national football team shirt, and has garish He-Man bedsheets. He considers Catholicism to be some sort of 'weird cult', and sees his career simply as a 'bit of a laugh', rather than a pious calling. His attempts at giving the death sacraments in Latin ended in his reciting the A.C. Milan football squad for 1995.

Aside from his profession, he also has trouble understanding basic concepts, such as optical illusions; in one renowned scene, Ted spends hours showing Dougal that a toy cow isn't the same size as one standing far away, even though they appear so to the naked eye.

From time to time however, Dougal does demonstrate a level of intelligence that occasionally surpasses that of Father Ted. In the episode "Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading", Dougal points out to Ted that knocking gently on the door of Rugged Island Parochial House wouldn't wake up the occupants. Instead Dougal suggests that Ted knocks loudly, which he does.

Father Dougal also has a fear of women. He has been known to hide from women, or otherwise ignore them. Ted spends time trying to explain to Dougal how to deal with women, which sometimes leads to embarrassing situations, such as giving away the parish house. However, Dougal seems to be much more relaxed with Nuns. In the episode "Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest", Dougal admits that he doesn't feel as nervous with a nun as much as he does with an ordinary woman. The whole situation of being uneasy around women more than likely evolves around him being a priest - presumably because, like all priests, he can't look at women in any romantic or sexual way. This situation for someone incredibly naive and carefree would be extremely difficult, so he avoids women. Father Ted once warned Dougal (episode "And God Created Women") that he could not think of women in a conventional sense (women being attractive to Dougal) anymore now that he is a priest.

Father Cyril McDuff of Rugged Island resembles Father Dougal - ironically, Dougal thinks the former is an "awful eejit".

Legacy

As testament to the character's enduring popularity, Irish bookmakers humorously began collecting bets on whether Dougal would succeed Pope John Paul II upon his death. The odds were 1,000 - 1, and some small stakes were actually received.

Trivia

• Dougal seems to be slow.
• Dougal's dim-witted and childish personality, may indicate that he suffers from a mild development disorder.
• Dougal is at times subjected to aggression from Father Jack, though not as often as Ted.
• Dougal is more relaxed with nuns than ordinary women a reversed contrast to the behavour of Father Jack.