Patrick Kielty: From Dundrum to Donnybrook and the Late Late Show

Patrick Kielty is the new host of RTE’s The Late Late Show and it’s a long way from playing GAA in the Co Down village of Dundrum.

Patrick (52) is a stand-up comedian, actor and BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster who is a household name in Ireland.

Kielty started performing comedy while still at St Patrick's Grammar in Downpatrick but did not start his professional career until he enrolled as a psychology student at Queen's University in Belfast.

His most recent comedy show, 2022's Borderline, was his first stand-up tour in seven years and saw the father-of-two go back to his roots with politically-charged comedy. As a Queen's student he ran and performed at the Empire Laughs Back comedy nights at The Empire Music Hall in the student area of south Belfast. It became embedded in the night life of the area and people remember it fondly as a release from the dark days of the Troubles.

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He has appeared on a variety of TV shows over the years, including Live at the Apollo, The Empire Laughs Back and fronted his own shows including PK Tonight and a Saturday night BBC network show called Patrick Kielty Almost Live.

He and Caroline Stewart co-hosted Sus, a Saturday show on UTV, and he worked alongside his future wife, Cat Deeley, when they hosted reality show Fame Academy on BBC. In June 2003 Kielty hosted the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics in Croke Park, Dublin.

Stage debut in A Night In November

After comedy, chat and reality shows through the 1990s and early 2000s Kielty made his full acting debut in a 2007 revival of Marie Jones' A Night in November in London's West End.

Paddy has also made a number of documentaries, including My Dad, The Peace Deal and Me and Patrick Kielty: One Hundred Years of Union, for which he won a Royal Television Society award for best presenter. My Dad, the Peace Deal and Me was screened in 2018 when Northern Ireland was marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. It explored the state of Northern Ireland two decades on and Kielty discussed the killing of his dad, Jack, and the impact it had on his life.

Film debut in Ballywalter

Kielty has made the move into big screen acting with his film Ballywater in which he stars alongside Seána Kerslake as a stand-up comic going through a divorce.

Describing the role. he said: "As someone who has done stand-up, there is a really fine line between a gig going well and you dying on your ass.

“You can analyse those moments, looking for that second, that word that changes everything.

“For someone like Shane, these really small things in his life could be the difference between him sailing along or bottoming out when he gets to Ballywalter.”

Paddy Kielty, RTE and The Late, Late Show

In May of this year Kielty was announced as the new host of the Late, Late Show , the flagship Friday night chatshow from the Republic of Ireland's national broadcaster RTE, when Ryan Tubridy stood down after 14 years at the helm.

The killing of Patrick's dad, Jack Kielty

Kielty's father, John 'Jack' Kielty, was shot dead on January 25 1988 at the age of 44. He had been killed by loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a pseudonym used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

John Kielty was to have been a key witness in Central Television's (ITV) defence of a libel action brought by loyalist paramilitary Jim Craig, who was suing the television company over a broadcast of The Cook Report which connected him to racketeering.

Patrick Kielty was part of the Down minor football squad from 1987 to 1989, winning an All-Ireland in 1987, and in an interview earlier this year on The Tommy Tiernan Show, Patrick remembered the days following the death of his father.

“I think that when you’re 16, and you’re running out at Croke Park with your brother who is 17, and you’ve men in changing rooms telling you that you are men, you kind of think you’re fully formed,” Kielty said.

“And so you were living in a society and you were part of a community that was telling you that you know, ‘you boys have to look after your mother’, you know and ‘you are men’. We had a younger brother, you know, he was 11.”

Patrick Kielty married Cat Deeley in Rome

Patrick Kielty is married to TV presenter and fellow Fame Academy host Cat Deeley. The pair married in a private ceremony in Rome in 2012 and set up home in Los Angeles where she was the long-running host of television show So You Think You Can Dance. The couple had worked together on BBC reality show Fame Academy in 2002-2003 and had remained friends before falling in love. They got married in a private ceremony in Rome with Ardoyne priest Fr Gary Donegan celebrating the Mass.

The pair have two children, little boys called Milo and James, and now live in north London, but Kielty has said he will be commuting to Dublin to record the Late Late Show.

He told the Press Association this week that his family has always had to deal with “moving parts” due to his and Cat’s careers.

“Neither of us have had a nine to five job and so there’s always been stuff where Cat’s gone and done stuff, and I’ve gone and done stuff.

“It feels, weirdly, that this show is probably the most routine that we’re going to have as a family,” he said.

“And what’s nice is that I still get to do a couple of school runs if it’s the start of the week and coming from Co Down and still having a house there, I get to see the other part of the family and get to be here, so it’s not as much of an upheaval as maybe you think.

“It was a wee bit trickier whenever you’re maybe doing stand up gigs and living in LA, that was harder.”

Kielty said Deeley and their sons would not be attending the first Lte, Late Show, but said “the request may come in for a trip” approaching Christmas as he prepares to take on The Toy Show.