Sister Deborah Gallagher was having a hard time lighting a cigarette while trying to stop her habit from being blown clean away by the wind.

Huddling next to her outside the pub on the tiny island of Inis Mor off the coast of Co Galway yesterday were about a dozen other nuns and priests. Several had wedding rings. Two of the nuns were holding hands with two of the priests, while Sister Deborah’s hand-appeared to be stroking Father Brian Connolly’s bottom.

All of them puffed desperately on cigarettes before heading back inside and returning to the real business of the weekend: not praying, but drinking.

Up to 1,000 fans of Father Ted had descended on the island to pay homage to the sit-com. Muttering “Feck!”, “Drink!” and “Erse!” and dressed as nuns, priests, cardinals and devils, they more than doubled the population. The only genuine priest on the island was nowhere to be seen; instead, the festival blessing was performed by a Celtic “druid”.

The decision to hold the festival on Inis Mor, which has one hotel, three pubs and a handful of B&Bs, sparked a dispute with people living on neighbouring Inis Oirr, who said that they were the real Craggy islanders because a shipwreck featured in the show’s opening sequence is a landmark of their coastline.

The row was settled on the beach with a five-a-side football match, the two teams managed by the footballers John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino. The score was 2-0 to Inis Mor.

Organisers of the three-day Friends of Ted Festival, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the death of the show’s star, Dermot Morgan, said that it may become an annual event.

Father Ted Crilly would have been proud of the surreal goings-on. At the community hall, a “cleaning fluid drinks reception” — in honour of Father Jack’s favourite tipple — saw blue cocktails poured from bottles of lavatory disinfectant.

It was followed by a beauty contest in which eight contestants clutching cakes competed for the title of “Loveliest Girl”. Cara, from Dublin, told the crowd: “I’ve come a long way to enter this competition and if you all vote for me I’ll give you a touch of my lovely bottom.”

Bob Roach, 33, from Manchester, who had led his team to victory in the priests and nuns five-a-side football tournament, roared in approval as one contestant minced around with a handbag made of teabags. Robert Healy, 25, from Co Roscommon, wore a black suit and white shirt decorated with palm trees. With his painted red face and red overcoat, was he perhaps the Devil? “No, I’m Father Dougal on holiday with a bad case of sunburn,” he said. At the hotel, several hundred clergy were so merry by Saturday afternoon that the “Buckaroo Speed Dating” event had to be cancelled.

One bishop, perhaps a little overanimated after consuming too much of Mrs Doyle’s tea following Ireland’s thrashing of England at rugby, tried to perform an impromptu baptism on a baby in the bar but was politely refused.

With the party due to continue into the early hours of today, bookmakers were taking bets on the island running out of drink. John Faherty, the island’s garda, was taking no chances. “If any of the nuns get carried away, we have cells to put them in,” he said.

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