Comedy legend Peter Kay spent time in Ireland after he cancelled a £46m tour in 2017.
The Bolton funnyman cancelled his long-awaited comeback tour at short notice, citing unforeseen family circumstances, but didn’t give any more details.
Kay has stayed away from public life since then, apart from occasional TV appearances.
That is until last week when he announced that he will be going on six date tour with his Dance For Life charity show.
The dance-a-thon shows are for charity and will raise money for Cancer Research UK.
Charity work has always been important to Kay. One of his rare appearances during his hiatus was fronting a special screening of Car Share.
This was to raise money for The Lily Foundation, who work with children with mitochondrial -disease. The star said that he had experienced the charity’s work first-hand.
He has also announced that his classic show Phoenix nights would be screened in arenas to raise money for charity.
Kay has Irish heritage, his mother Dierdre comes from Coalisland, Co Tyrone, and he has often spoken about spending time in Ireland.
Kay spoke about his Tipperary home during a classic appearance on the Late Late Show.
He said: “I don’t talk about it because I don’t want it to get robbed. We’ve had a house here for 12 years.
“We come here all the time. Whenever there’s a school holiday, really. We give Christmas a miss because the house is freezing. It takes ages to warm up.”
Locals in Co Tipperary say the star has been living in his secluded house in Lough Derg during his absence, where has kept a low profile.
One person told the Irish Sun: “Peter clearly wanted to keep a low profile and did everything he could to avoid attracting attention to himself while staying here.
“You’d never see him in the local pubs or restaurants, and he always seemed to be alone. Most people only ever saw him passing through.”
