Angry Father Ted star Dermot Morgan has vowed to continue his battle of words with the Catholic Church.

The television priest, who shot to fame with the Channel 4 comedy four years ago, lost all sympathy for the Church over its stand against the 1995 divorce referendum.

Morgan, whose marriage ended 10 years ago, said: “We, the good guys, only shaded it.

“Despite being discredited over child abuse and all that stuff, the Church got out of the trenches again and said ’Oh no, you could go to hell for divorce’. That drained all sympathy I had for them.

“It ended my efforts to be a little bit softer on them. I now think you have to keep smacking them on the nose.”

Morgan, who has two teenage sons from his marriage, divides his time between London and home city Dublin with his partner Fiona and their son Ben, three.

Dermot said: “I don’t believe in a moral command economy where you are told everything to do and everything is centred around the Church.

“It’s not healthy for ju-ju men to hop around the altar and tell you what’s bad or good.”

On the eve of the new series of Father Ted, Dermot believes the time is right to hang up his dog collar and quit the series.

“I’m all collared out. And I don’t want to be saying to my little boy when he asks ’What did you do today Dad?’, ’Well, I was wearing a lampshade and doing Chinese impressions and then I was judging the King of the Sheep competition,’ for ever.”