![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3886771_17_articleinline_B_26F_20Awards_20Gabriel_20Byrne_20004.jpg\" "\\"Irish")
Irish Actor and Director Gabriel Byrne collecting the T.K Whitaker Award at the Business & Finance Awards 2023 in the CCD Dublin. Picture Andres Poveda<\/p>\nGabriel Byrne appears on screen in the small square of a Zoom call, his face instantly familiar but lighter than expected, the Dublin timbre unhurried.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go down to Cork very regularly,\u201d he says, rolling the word as though tasting it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I live in the States, my first port of call is Dublin \u2014 and then down to Cork.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughs when the connection stutters. \u201cThat\u2019s the price of distance,\u201d he shrugs, a man who long ago made peace with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next week, he\u2019ll close that distance, returning to Cork Film Festival to talk about In Defence of the Realm, the 1985 political thriller produced by David Puttnam, who is being honoured by the festival this year.<\/p>\n
For Byrne, it\u2019s more than a trip down memory lane. It\u2019s a return to the film that shifted his career from Irish theatre actor to international leading man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen the film for a long time,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut I remember the world it came out of \u2014 Thatcher\u2019s Britain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n It was a turbulent time to be living in London. You had the rise of Rupert Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher, and what they did to politics and newspapers, smashing unions, changing the language of power.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
The film\u2019s plot \u2014 a journalist uncovering a government cover-up \u2014 could have been lifted from the headlines then or now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about how far you can go as a journalist,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very atypical movie. It ends not with the hero getting the girl and riding into the sunset, but with the reporter\u2019s death \u2014 an explosion dismissed as a gas leak on the news. It was brave. Political films were rare then.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt asked: What is the role of a journalist in a free society? What are the pressures to tell or hide the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n
He was a decade into acting when In Defence of the Realm came his way, but its success transformed the trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Irish Actor and Director Gabriel Byrne collecting the T.K Whitaker Award at the Business & Finance Awards 2023 in the CCD Dublin. Picture Andres Poveda<\/p>\n
Before that, Byrne had already carved out a distinctive path: Born in Dublin in 1950, he began at the Abbey Theatre and found early fame on RT\u00c9\u2019s The Riordans and Bracken.<\/p>\n
His film debut in John Boorman\u2019s Excalibur (1981) led to a steady climb through stage and screen, but it was In Defence of the Realm that opened international doors.<\/p>\n
From there came Ken Russell\u2019s Gothic, the Coen brothers\u2019 Miller\u2019s Crossing, and a string of transatlantic performances that made him one of cinema\u2019s most quietly magnetic presences \u2014 from Little Women, The Usual Suspects, and The Man in the Iron Mask to End of Days and HBO\u2019s In Treatment, which earned him a Golden Globe.<\/p>\n
Nearly five decades on, Byrne remains one of the few actors equally at ease in Hollywood, European arthouse, and Irish theatre \u2014 a career built less on stardom than on substance.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp to then, Irish actors were consigned to the back of the shot,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn films made in Ireland, you\u2019d still have Americans or Brits doing bad accents, while the Abbey Theatre crowd got one line. Playing an English reporter was, for me, a huge breakthrough, not just as an actor, but as an Irish actor being allowed into that world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The role led to Gothic, then Miller\u2019s Crossing, and, as Byrne puts it: \u201cAmerica opened up after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, he remembers that early prejudice.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen I first went to England, there was no question \u2014 Irish actors were seen as something less.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing Irish meant being the guy in the corner of the pub in Ryan\u2019s Daughter with one line.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t soften his accent or his sense of self.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never taken out American citizenship,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to remain Irish. But you do notice the way you\u2019re perceived changes when you leave. Somebody once said: \u2018I never knew I was Irish until I left Ireland.\u2019 And it\u2019s true. Abroad, that becomes your whole identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation drifts naturally to the state of cinema itself \u2014 the real reason he\u2019s glad to support Cork Film Festival. \u201cThe business has changed hugely, even in the last 10 years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is why film festivals are more important than ever. They give people in the business a chance to come together, and they let audiences discover new voices on a big screen together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He worries that the communal magic of cinema is fading. \u201cStudios never imagined their days would be numbered, but home technology has altered everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Big cinemas aren\u2019t inviting anymore. You have to applaud the people running independents \u2014 they\u2019re like small bookshops, a stand against corporate entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching a film at home, he says, will never replicate sitting in the dark with strangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat collective participation \u2014 that\u2019s the key. It\u2019s still a wonderful experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can stop the film at home and make a cup of tea, but you lose the moment where everyone breathes together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byrne\u2019s concern lies in what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is going to affect the business hugely,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just how films are made, but how they\u2019re distributed. Netflix, Amazon, all those streamers, they\u2019ve become their own studios now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey control the channels of distribution, so the old studio system has been pushed onto the back foot. The danger is that the communal experience gets replaced by an algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiles ruefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople used to queue around the block for a new Robert Altman film. That collective excitement doesn\u2019t exist anymore. Film has become home entertainment. But it\u2019s survived everything before \u2014 from silence to technicolor to the blockbuster \u2014 and it will evolve again. It always does.\u201d<\/p>\n
His affection for Cork Festival lies in that belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cFestivals keep alive the idea that cinema matters. Even Cannes and Venice are under pressure to show big studio pictures, but you\u2019ll always find worthwhile independent films in there. That\u2019s why Cork\u2019s reputation is so important \u2014 it\u2019s great for the city, great for filmmakers, great for filmgoers.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4842921_9_articleinline_GabrielHands10.jpg\" "\\"Actor")
Actor Gabriel Byrne having his handprints taken on stage at the Gaiety in 2022.<\/p>\n
When he talks about David Puttnam, the admiration is immediate.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid was incredibly successful at that time, but he took risks. In Defence of the Realm was one of them. He could have stayed in Hollywood making safe choices, but he wanted to tell stories that mattered. He couldn\u2019t work in that system because the kind of films he believed in weren\u2019t being made. So he made his own.\u201d<\/p>\n
That decision, Byrne says, changed things for actors too. \u201cUntil then, the Irish in British cinema were caricatures. Defence gave me a lead role as an Englishman \u2014 that was unthinkable then. And it opened the door for others. Now, it\u2019s unremarkable to see an Irish actor lead an international film. That\u2019s progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The progress wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cWhen I started, I\u2019d have to fly from Dublin to London for an audition and back the same night. I couldn\u2019t afford it. You\u2019d walk into a room as one of 10 people, and they had no idea you\u2019d been at the airport at seven that morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish actors were only offered small parts \u2014 the IRA man, the drunk, the comic relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughs softly. \u201cThat was the gig.\u201d<\/p>\n
He still marvels at the change. \u201cNow you look at the generation coming out of Ireland, it\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t have to go through that grinding start. You can be Irish and be front and centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byrne himself never quite believed in arrival. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt I\u2019d \u2018made it,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like football. Look at Liverpool right now. You can win the league, but next season you start again. You can\u2019t live off the last victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s philosophical about fame and its half-life. \u201cYou look at the people who were the biggest names of their day \u2014 Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio \u2014 and now they\u2019re the old guard. It\u2019s a young person\u2019s game in some ways. You have to make peace with that, to hand over the baton. If you don\u2019t, it\u2019ll be taken from you anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no bitterness in his tone, only understanding. \u201cThe key is to stay grounded. I\u2019ve seen what happens when success changes people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go from being decent and approachable to being divas, never satisfied. Fame makes you lose the run of yourself. I learned early on that the most important thing is the work. Whether you\u2019re a plumber or an actor, the job is the job. Do it, do it well, then move on. The rest is noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
His distrust of celebrity is rooted in experience. \u201cWhen I worked on The Riordans, those people were more famous in Ireland than any film star. They couldn\u2019t go anywhere. I was there the day RT\u00c9 came in and told a roomful of 25 people their careers were over. That\u2019s when I learned how meaningless fame can be. One day you\u2019re adored; the next you\u2019re forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shakes his head. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people suffer from it. Not being able to walk down the street, being chased, hiding in cafes. It\u2019s not a pleasant thing. I\u2019d rather be known for the work than for being known.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all that realism, there\u2019s still warmth in his relationship with home. \u201cCork\u2019s always been special,\u201d he says. \u201cMy wife and I got married in Ballymaloe in 2016, so it\u2019s a place of great memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I feel like going to East Cork, sometimes West \u2014 they both have their own magic. The people, the food, the air \u2014 it\u2019s one of my favourite places.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalls his first visit, decades ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a play at the Opera House called The Liberty Suit, about the councillor Mannix Flynn. It was a huge success in Dublin and in Cork. The Cork audience took to it, even though it was a very Dublin play. I was down there for six or seven weeks and almost started talking like a Cork man,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lovely place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he arrives back this November, it will be to celebrate not just a film, but a lifetime spent believing that art still matters \u2014 that truth told on screen can shift something in the world beyond it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFestivals like this keep that flame alive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when you sit in the dark with strangers and watch a story unfold, you\u2019re reminded that there\u2019s more that connects us than divides us. And that\u2019s always worth defending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabriel Byrne will be in conversation with Academy Award-winning film producer David Puttnam at a special screening of In Defence of The Realm on November 7 at the Triskel as part of Cork Film Festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Byrne appears on screen in the small square of a Zoom call, his face instantly familiar but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[69527,321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-117379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-cork-film-festival","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}