Gabriel Byrne 'Walking with Ghost' of John Cowley

Hollywood star's tribute to Ardbraccan actor

I suppose when you’re Gabriel Byrne, you’re allowed to namedrop a little.

When local photographer Barry Cronin met up with the Hollywood star for a photoshoot for last Saturday’s Irish Independent magazine, the producer of Byrne’s new one-man show said: “Barry is from Navan as well.”

Byrne replied: “Jaysus, why is everyone I meet from Navan? What is it about Navan?”

What did he mean, asked Barry.

"I’m only after meeting Tommy Tiernan and Pierce Brosnan, and now you!”

Needless to say, the camera man was delighted to be mentioned in such illustrious company by another Irish start of film and TV.

And it is to a man from close to Navan that Gabriel Byrne his acting career – John Cowley of Bohermeen, better known as the character Tom Riordan in ‘The Riordans’, the RTE rural drama series that Byrne first came to notice in, as Pat Barry.

“Like most people in Ireland I was brought up on Sunday night watching The Riordans,” he said. “When I was asked to join, it was the strangest of situations because all of a sudden I was among these characters that I felt I knew so well.

“I wasn’t talking to the actors, I was talking to their characters, Tom Riordan, or that, but after a while I got used to it. Because at that time there were only two channels, the series was so well watched that overnight you became instantly known. When The Riordans ceased they developed a new series called Bracken which was based around my character, and that was a very different experience.”

Byrne, who went on to make films like ‘Miller’s Crossing’ and ‘The Usual Suspects’, said: “It was the first time that RTE had ever done a colour programme on location, down in Wicklow. Joe Lynch and Mick Lally were wonderful actors to be involved with.

“I look back on that time of my life with enormous fondness, and it gave me a profile in Ireland that allowed me to go on to do other things.

“You could work with John Cowley or Tom Hickey on the farm in The Riordans and they really knew about farming. John Cowley could strip an engine while he was giving you the lines. It was a marvellous form of acting school.”

‘Walking with Ghosts’ written and performed by Gabriel Byrne, directed by Lonny Price fr Landmark Productions and Lovano, is adapted from the actor’s best-selling memoir of the same name.

As a young boy growing up on the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his Walkinstown home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city.  Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and a commentary on stardom in Hollywood and on Broadway, he returns to his hometown to reflect on a life’s journey.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Walking with Ghosts is a lyrical homage to the people and landscapes that ultimately shape our destinies.

It runs for 12 performances to Sunday 6th February.