Comedian gets honorary degree from Ulster

Patrick Kielty has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Ulster University for his outstanding contribution to the arts. 

He joined thousands of students at the graduation ceremony yesterday, and posed with artist Colin Davidson, the university’s chancellor.

Asked for some life advice for Ulster students who might want to go into arts and entertainment, he said: ‘Don’t! Clearly older comedians like me still need to work so I would say do a degree and go into something completely different...please don’t come and steal my dinner!’

The comedian’s wife, Cat Deeley, was unable to attend the ceremony as she was busy hosting ITV’s This Morning.

Kielty said: ‘Apparently when you’re hosting a live show Monday to Thursday, you don’t get time off – she couldn’t believe that Ulster had given me this honour - she still thinks I’ve come back for a wee break here and just pretended to get an honorary degree.’

Last year, Kielty, from Dundrum, Co. Down, landed the biggest job in Irish television as host of RTÉ’s The Late Late Show, while his first feature film, Ballywalter, came out in 2022.

Published: 2 Jul 2024