Trending 16th March 2017 by Grace McGettigan

Totes emosh! Graham Norton Has Just Been Honoured In The Sweetest Way

A lovely little tribute to a national treasure.

He’s been making us laugh since his Father Ted days, and now our national hero Graham Norton has been honoured in a seriously lovely way: the National Gallery of Ireland have displayed a specially commissioned portrait of him. Nawww.


The portrait was commissioned as part of a Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist Of The Year competition, and in a case of ‘it’s a small world after all’ the artist who painted it, Belfast’s Gareth Reid, has just found out that he and Graham are actually related. Gas!

Gareth told Sky: “My dad knew there was some connection a while back but only decided to tell me about it a week after the final when we were in Kerry together.

“I still can’t quite take in the chances of me, out of all the people who entered, getting the opportunity to paint Graham, out of all the people they could have chosen, and it turning out we’re third cousins.”

“He is genuinely a lovely guy and he took [my partner] Suzy and me out for dinner after the unveiling,” Gareth added.

Ah! Much deserved congrats to both Gareth and Graham!