Biography

Ardal supports The Aisling Project which helps homeless Irish people in London, and has also done work for the Irish Cancer Research Campaign.

His parents were somewhat dismayed and bewildered when he told them he wanted to go into showbusiness, particularly comedy, because they had hoped he would follow their other children into medicine and accounting professions. However,nowadays, his parents are fans of his.

His father, Rory O'Hanlon TD is an Irish MP, former minister of the Irish Government, and was Cheann Comhairle, (Speaker) of Dáil Éireann from 2002-2007. He remains a senior Fianna Fail politician.

Previous jobs prior to becoming a full-time actor include hotel porter, pig farmer, employment in a Norfolk pea-canning factory, shop sandwich-maker, and a check-in clerk for Aer Lingus airlines.

Spent six months in a seminary studying the young priests in action as research for the Father Ted (1995) role Father Dougal McGuire. Said, "About 90% of the priests in the seminary were a bit like Dougal."

I just like doing different things. I get very impatient and very bored easily and I'm always curious to try other things. If I had an ambition in life it would be to know everything, but I guess that's a bit unrealistic. But as long as I can breathe, I hope I will continue to try and do different things. It's about not being afraid to fail. Of course I care about that but you've still got to try things and that's what I want to continue to do.

I was never really into superheroes as a child. We weren't allowed to watch much television in our house so I wasn't a television or a movie buff nor were we encouraged to read comic books. My mother fed us books but it was mainly proper classic children's literature like the CS Lewis books. Much later, as a teenager, I saw some of the sixties Batman series, but wasn't particularly enthralled by it. My heroes tended to be footballers, the Pope and JFK.

I don't think anyone's "happy".

Ireland is a land of Poets and Writers. Or "Drunks", as you call them...

That was the show, more than any other show, that inspired me to get into comedy. As a teenager I was glued to The Young Ones (1982).