HEAVEN, according to The Simpsons, is an Irish-themed bar featuring Riverdance, heavy drinking and fighting. But that’s just the Catholic version. In Protestant heaven, people in polo shirts spend eternity playing croquet and badminton.

A controversial episode of the television series, broadcast last week in America, features the voice of Liam Neeson as an Irish priest, Fr Sean, who converts Bart and Homer Simpson to Catholicism.

Entitled The Father, Son and the Holy Guest Star, the irreverent episode not only caused outrage in Springfield but led to some complaints from viewers in America. It will be aired in Ireland later this summer.

Bart is converted by Fr Sean after being expelled from Springfield Elementary and sent to a Catholic school dedicated to St Jerome. His mother Marge tells him: “He (Jerome) suffered for our sins, now it’s your turn.”

Bart’s teachers include an Irish nun and a trendy, Eminem-quoting priest, who is represented by the voice of the Ballymena-born Neeson. Fr Sean converts Homer to Catholicism using a cocktail of beer, pancakes and games.

The episode parodies several religious stereotypes, and at one point Homer declares: “Catholics rule! We’ve got Boston, South America and the good part of Ireland.”

In order to spare Catholic sensibilities, American broadcasters originally postponed transmission of the programme because it clashed with the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI. But Irish Protestants have complained that it is they who are the real laughing stock.

Gordon Linney, the former Church of Ireland archdeacon of Dublin, said: “I found the depiction of the Protestant Heaven hugely offensive; it made us sound boring. The Catholics were having much more fun.

“It is wrong for anyone to set out intentionally to cause offence, especially in religious matters, but sometimes religious people take themselves far too seriously and take offence too easily. We have survived screen and strife for over 2,000 years, so we’re not going to get upset about a cartoon.”

One stereotype did offend Linney, however. “What did upset me is the American stereoptype that Ireland is 100% Catholic,” he said. “It’s not; 25% of the population is Protestant and the Americans should bear that in mind when they mock the Irish on screen singing for a united Ireland.”

Even though Homer cheats First Communion classes by writing “transubstantiation” along the length of his arm, and Catholic heaven is portrayed as a bawdy drinking den, devout Irish Catholics are refusing to be offended, so far.

“If The Simpsons episode helps to portray heaven as a happy place, I have no problem with it,” said Father Micheal Mac Greil, the chairman of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA).

“The real Heaven, according to Catholicism, is seeing God’s face and beauty in the presence of the saints. Nobody on earth could imagine what that is like.

“I wouldn’t take any notice of the Irish stereotypes. The Irish are a jovial people and emotionally expressive, and let’s just say that other religions and peoples are more reserved. But we should remember that a sober Heaven can be very jolly too.”

Religious parodies regularly upset the faithful. Father Ted, the Channel 4 series, dismayed the Catholic church. A planned BBC cartoon featuring Pope John Paul II bouncing around the Vatican on a pogo stick was scrapped following thousands of complaints from Catholics.

Last month the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) upheld a religious complaint against Eamon Dunphy’s show on NewsTalk 106 which broadcast a spoof newsflash in December last year saying that Pope John Paul II had died.

“The Dunphy sketch was in very poor taste,” said Garry O’Sullivan, the editor of the Irish Catholic. “In fairness to The Simpsons, they have given every major religion a fair whack. You have to draw the line somewhere and the Dunphy sketch announcing the death of the Pope crossed that line.

“Catholics take it on the chin, it is anything goes for them. But at the same time Catholics should be able to sit back and laugh at themselves and allow others to poke fun at us.

“The Irish are hilarious. We take offence at being portrayed as alcoholics but even the drinks industry in Ireland admits we have a problem.

“The Catholics will probably laugh at the croquet in the Protestant heaven and laugh less at the drinking and fighting in the Catholic Heaven, but at the end of the day it’s just a bit of fun.”

Neeson, who played a holy man in The Mission and the saintly Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List, was once criticised by members of Ian Paisley’s DUP for alleged derogatory remarks about predominantly Protestant Ballymena.

Neeson was quoted as saying in an American magazine in 1999 that he felt “second class” as a Catholic growing up in the town and felt he had to stay indoors during the loyalist July 12 marches. DUP councillors then objected to a proposal to offer Neeson the freedom of the borough. The actor turned down the offer of an honour from his home town, saying that the controversy made it “inappropriate” to accept.

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