User:AnemoneProjectors/Dermott Dolan

Dermott Dolan
Kat & Alfie: Redwater character
Portrayed by	Oisín Stack Eoin Daly (young)
First appearance	Episode 1
Last appearance	Episode 6
In-universe information Other names Luke (pre-adoption name) Occupation Priest Family Slater Father Harry Slater Mother Kathleen Moon Adoptive father Peter Dolan Adoptive mother Iris Dolan Sisters Zoe Slater Half-brothers Tommy Moon Bert Moon Ernie Moon

Dermott Dolan is a fictional character played by Oisín Stack on the BBC/RTÉ television drama series Kat & Alfie: Redwater, a spin-off from the soap opera EastEnders. In flashback, a young Dermott is played by Eoin Daly. He appears in all six episodes of the series.

History

In EastEnders episodes broadcast in January 2016, Kathleen Moon (Jessie Wallace) discovers she gave birth to a son, Luke, after she passed out during the birth of her daughter Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan). A nun, Sister Ruth (June Whitfield), explains that Kathleen's family, fearing that the child would turn out like his paedophile father, Kathleen's uncle, Harry Slater (Michael Elphick), handed him to the nuns in the convent where he was born. The nuns named him Luke and arranged for him to be adopted into an Irish family.

In Redwater's first episode, Dermott is seen in a flashback scene, where he is involved in the Redwater tragedy that kills his mother, Iris Dolan (Orla Hannon). 21 years later, Kathleen and her husband, Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) arrive in the Irish town of Redwater, where Kathleen is attempting to find her son. Kathleen quickly befriends Dermott, the local Catholic priest, and Lance Byrne (Ian McElhinney). Dermott is angry at being delivered orange juice when he has not requested it. Kathleen confides in Lance that she is searching for her son, and he tells his wife, Agnes Byrne (Fionnula Flanagan). Lance tells Dermott that Iris and Peter Dolan (Stanley Townsend) are not his parents and that Iris lost her baby while staying in London, so brought back Kathleen's son as her own, and Peter does not know the truth. The next day, after finding more orange juice has been delivered, Dermott meets Lance while Lance is swimming in the sea and makes him eat a sacramental wafer and then drowns him in the sea while flashing back to the tragedy, where he lets go of Iris's hand, allowing her to die. Dermott prays for Lance's soul, and then forgives him before leaving the scene.

In episode 2, at Lance's wake, Dermott hears Kathleen telling Agnes that she did not know she has a son as she was unconscious during the birth and he was taken from her. After the funeral, Dermott sees Kathleen's son, Tommy Moon (Henry Proctor), in the churchyard and takes him into the church. When Kathleen, Alfie and Agnes arrive looking for Tommy, they find Dermott and Tommy on their knees in prayer. Tommy tells Kathleen that he found his brother, and Dermott confirms to Kathleen that he is her son. In episode 3, Kathleen and Dermott have bonded but Kathleen lies to him about his father. Dermott worries that Tommy will tell Peter the truth. Agnes tells Kathleen that Dermott was vulnerable when Iris died because Peter turned to alcohol. When Tommy nearly reveals the truth to Peter, Dermott threatens him, though later apologises. Later, Dermott overhears Kathleen and Alfie arguing about Kathleen refusing to tell him the truth.

In episode 4, Dermott learns that local garda Bernie Kelly (Susan Ateh) is looking into something about Lance on her daughter Adeen Kelly's (Ebony O'Toole-Acheampong) phone. He steals a dog from outside the pub and makes a hoax call to the garda to get Bernie on her own, then uses the dog as an excuse to enter the station, claiming it is a stray. Pregnant Bernie goes into labour, and instead of calling for help, Dermott checks Bernie's emails and sees an enhanced photograph showing his footprints on the beach; Dermott deletes the email. He delivers Bernie's son and calls an ambulance when she starts bleeding and passes out. Dermott, Andrew Kelly (Peter Campion) and Kieran Harrington (Ian Toner) go out drinking in the woods to celebrate the birth, where Kieran says that his mother, Eileen Harrington (Angeline Ball), wants her plans to refurbish a house, Cois Dara, to be family only, excluding Dermott. Angered by this, and knowing Kieran has a fear of water, Dermott takes him and Andrew to a lake with a rope swing; Kieran falls in and has a flashback to the tragedy; je remembers Dermott refusing to save Iris's life. Dermott then rescues Kieran from the lake. Later, Kieran tells Andrew what he remembered and says Dermott must have lied about trying to call Andrew when Bernie, his wife, went into labour; Dermott listens in as Andrew dismisses Kieran's claims. Dermott leaves the house at dawn and goes to Cois Dara and is later seen standing next to the house, which is burning.

In episode 5, Agnes reveals to Dermott that he has a twin sister. Dermott confronts Kathleen, who tells him about Zoe and says she did not want Dermott to feel rejected by her. When Peter asks Dermott why he has been so moody, Dermott says that Peter is not his father and Iris was not his mother, that Iris lost Peter's child, Kathleen is his mother, and Iris stole him. Dermott flashes back to before the tragedy, where Iris is drunk on the boat and says she is not Dermott's mother. Dermott tells Peter that he mourned a woman he did not know and spent his life bringing up a child that was not his. Dermott then tells Peter, a recovering alcoholic, to pour himself a drink. Dermott later meets Alfie, who tells him that the tumour on his brain has grown and asks him to baptise him, which Dermott does in the sea.

In episode 6, Bernie questions Dermott over his whereabouts on the morning Lance died; he says he was in the church and he last saw Lance in the pub the night before. Kieran tells Bernie that he remembers Dermott letting Iris die on the boat and suspects he was involved in the Cois Dara fire. Peter tells Bernie that Dermott was the last person to see Lance alive as they had arranged to meet that morning. Bernie then sees CCTV footage of Dermott deleting her emails. Bernie sees Dermott with Kathleen on the beach, and Kathleen tells Dermott that Bernie was asking about him. Dermott sees the garda arriving so takes Kathleen in Peter's boat, saying they will try to find the whale that was recently seen off the coast. Bernie shouts at him to stop and calls the coastguard. Kathleen asks Dermott if he did something to Lance; he accidentally crashes the boat into a rock and Kathleen is thrown into the water and then cut by the propellor. Dermott gets Kathleen out of the sea but there is nobody around to help.

Development

Dermott is Stack's first Irish television role, as he moved to France at the age of 11 and his career was based in France, Spain and Chile. Stack was cast in the role of Dermott in March 2016, only two weeks before filming started, and did not know who else would be in the cast until he started filming. He revealed: "There are lots of twists and turns about [Dermott's] past and I believe producers weren't sure what direction they were going with the character, so when he turned into a psychopath they had to re-cast him. This is my first villain role and that's why I'm so chuffed. I get a lot of romantic roles in France and I enjoy them, but you do kind of end up playing the same part. This is completely different." Stack revealed that he wanted to make Dermott a "cool priest", and looked at Catholic magazines and YouTube videos for inspiration, saying "If you pick up a Catholic magazine or even when I went to a seminary in Dublin and there were young cool guys wearing hoodies and trainers."

Stack said of his character's involvement in Lance's death: "It's always nice when there's a real surprise and people aren't expecting what they're going to see." He added, "What he did was a spur of the moment thing. There's going to be a lot of him trying to figure out exactly what happened and what the truth is. Because he himself doesn't actually know the truth completely. Not yet, anyway..." Stack also said that Dermott is "an unstable guy who feels pretty hard done by", and although he said "Dermott has a screw or two loose" he hoped viewers would find him "a bit sympathetic".

Dominic Treadwell-Collins, executive producer for Kat & Alfie: Redwater, said, "We wanted the audience to be saying, 'run away, Kat and Alfie! Go back to Spain! As we know, Dermott is Harry's son—so there are demons and darkness there. How much Harry is there in him? How much bad blood is there? That's an interesting story to tell." David Brown from Radio Times said that Dermott "obviously has a murderous streak" because he let his adoptive mother die before killing Lance several years later. However, Jackie Bell from the Belfast Telegraph questioned if Dermott's actions relating to Iris's death were deliberate.

Reception

After the first episode, Peter Crawley from The Irish Times opined that Dermott was "the show's most unlikely character", calling him "a 33-year-old bearded hipster priest [...] who accessorises his collar with a hoodie and a donkey jacket [and] flies into a rage at the sight of orange juice". Sam Wollaston from The Guardian said Dermott was an "unlikely priest" and wondered what the character's problem with orange juice was, saying, "It’s unordered deliveries of the stuff, rather than finding out the truth about how he came into the world, that seem to trigger the rages. Keep that priest away from the freshly squeezed, or someone else is going to get killed." Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy said that Dermott was one of two characters who "immediately caught our attention". Kilkelly also called Dermott a "villain" and said that "It's obvious to viewers that Dermott really isn't someone you'd want your young son to be spending too much time with", after promotional images from episode 2 showed Dermott and Tommy spending time together in the church. Kilkelly's colleague, Sophie Dainty, called Dermott "a dangerous, murdering priest" whose "evil side was quickly exposed". Jackie Bell from the Belfast Telegraph said that Dermott "was apparently the pillar of the community—the man everyone turned to for advice and guidance, while he enjoyed a pint and a joke down the pub" until "[i]t all went a bit wrong". A writer for The Sun's TV Magazine called Dermott "disturbed".

After episode 2, Kilkelly said that Dermott "can seem pretty cold and intense at the best of times", he is "pretty good at putting on a deceptive front", his conversation with Tommy hinted at "mummy issues in general" and it "seemingly doesn't take too much for Dermott's dark side to emerge". David Brown from Radio Times said that Dermott was "looking more murderous by the episode" and he was "stalking around Redwater channelling Jamie Dornan in The Fall". Jill Pelton from TV Times said that by episode 4, Dermott is "becoming increasingly unhinged—stealing a dog from outside a pub and wasting police time are just two of his weirder misdemeanours." Kilkelly noted that episode 4 put the focus of the show "firmly back onto murderous man of the cloth Dermott", which made the episode "tense, well-paced and atmospheric". He said Dermott's scenes in the police station with Bernie were "creepy" and said he was "genuinely scared" that Dermott would kill again, opining that "perhaps no-one is safe with Dermott around". He called Dermott "shifty", "the devil" and a serial eavesdropper", and observed that "Stack is clearly relishing this chance to really explore his character's sinister side". Kilkelly's colleague, Megan Davis, said that "Dermott's sinister side is out in full force" in episode 4, and reported that viewers were "on the edge of their seats" because of Dermott's "strange behaviour". Brown (Radio Times) said that by episode 4, it had become "increasingly apparent that this is really Dermott's story", adding that "Every time he appears on screen, you're wondering whose demise he's going to orchestrate next".

• http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/redwater/review/a830849/kat-and-alfie-redwater-episode-5-review/
• https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/redwater-finale-a-cliched-vision-of-ireland-right-to-the-end-1.3124571
• https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/redwater-a-british-backward-ballykissangel-idea-of-ireland-1.3083427

References

Category:Drama television characters Category:Fictional adoptees Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2017 Category:Fictional Irish people Category:Fictional priests and priestesses Category:Fictional murderers Category:Fictional twins