Father Dougal McGuire to television, casting O'Hanlon as the on-screen Dougal. Arthur Mathews created the character of Father Ted while working at "Hot Press" in 1987–89. During production weekends, he and Paul Woodfull had the idea for The Joshua Trio, a comedic U2 tribute band. The band performed various warm-up sketches written by Mathews, Woodfull, and Graham Linehan, who joined in a non-musical capacity. These sketches included stand-up performed by Mathews in-character as Father Ted Crilly. As Ted, Mathews sometimes read from a book, "Notes from Africa", purportedly written by Father Dougal McGuire, a missionary friend who described his experiences of being attacked
A Song for Europe (Father Ted) government, but was rejected by the Oireachtas petitions committee. A Song for Europe (Father Ted) "A Song for Europe" is the fifth episode of the second series of the Channel 4 sitcom "Father Ted" and the 11th episode overall. It originally aired in April 1996 and has since been recognised as one of the most popular episodes of the show. The episode is based on Ireland's winning streak at the Eurovision Song Contest during the 1990s. The plot centres around Ted and Dougal trying to write a song for it (though the episode does not refer to that name directly)