Ciaran Byrne: Class Act

15 minutes with…

By mIchael D. McClellan

Ciaran Byrne has travelled a great distance from the Northern Ireland of his childhood to New York City, where he lives today, but that doesn’t mean the builder-turned-actor has forgotten his homeland, or dismissed the tanks and guns and bloodshed as a dreamlike series of unfortunate events, or chalked it all up to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Troubles were at a fever pitch on January 30, 1972, when British paratroopers opened fire on peaceful protesters marching against a British internment policy. Thirteen innocent civilians died outright. A fourteenth would succumb to his injuries four months later. Byrne, born eleven months after what came to be known as the Bogside Massacre – or, more infamously, Bloody Sunday – spent his formative years being shaped by its aftermath.