‘Now it’s almost trendy, but it used to be something I was so ashamed of. I would never talk about it in a work setting’

With family on both sides that go back to the tenements, actor Thommas Kane Byrne fulfilled a dream when he was cast in the centenary production of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. Here, he talks about creating his own luck, no longer being ashamed about his ADHD and why authentic working-class voices matter on stage

Actor Thommas Kane Byrne at the Abbey Theatre. Photo: Frank McGrath

“I’ll never not be a hustler. I am just addicted to the graft of it all, you know what I mean?” actor Thommas Kane Byrne says.

Kane Byrne is sitting in Pegeen’s cafe in the Abbey Theatre foyer, where he is currently starring in the theatre’s centenary production of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars.