I'm a Celeb's Richard Coles: 'The Barrs [GAA club in Cork] sent me a membership card'

The multi-talented Richard Coles, currently appearing on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, has been a pop star and a vicar, as well as having an affinity with one of Cork's most famous GAA teams 

Richard Coles. Picture: Matt Crockett

A couple of days before I speak with Richard Coles, he has been out bopping with a host of other celebs at London’s Albert Hall in London for An Audience with Kylie Minogue. Now here we are on Zoom discussing the merits of Gaelic football and hurling. The contrast sums up the English musician turned vicar turned author, broadcaster, Strictly contestant and whatever you’re having yourself — he is a veritable magpie of occupations and interests.

Coles, 62, had a short but memorable stint in The Communards as a multi-instrumentalist alongside vocalist Jimmy Somerville, scoring a smash hit with the song Don’t Leave Me This Way in 1986. They parted company in 1988, with Coles taking an unlikely turn towards religion, becoming an Anglican vicar in 2005.