Byrne goes in search of lost time at TCD

Dublin-born actor Gabriel Byrne had the students of Trinity College eating out of his hand yesterday when he revealed he preferred that college to his own alma mater, UCD.

The star of Bracken, The Riordans, Miller's Crossing and The Usual Suspects described his time at UCD in the 1970s as being like "waiting at an airport for a plane that never came in".

The reception may have been more subdued than that for fellow-actor Al Pacino last November, but Byrne fans packed the Graduates' Memorial Building to see him receiving the honorary patronage of the University Philosophical Society.

In a wide-ranging and lively discussion with the society's president Daire Hickey, Byrne spoke of the "discrimination" he experienced when it came to choosing which college to attend as a school-leaver.

"At that time Archbishop John Charles McQuaid made it very, very difficult for Catholics to go to Trinity," he explained, describing McQuaid as "ruthless", "a tyrant" and "a real bigot".

"At the time I had the perception of Trinity as being a hipper and cooler place to study," he added to appreciative noises from the audience. The elegant architecture of Trinity, he said, would have been better for his spirit than the concrete sprawl of UCD, an institution which he described as being "anti-person" and "anti-learning" in those days.

Looking elegant, Byrne (56) also discussed his "tough" working-class upbringing in Walkinstown, leaving Ireland to train for the priesthood at the age of 11, his teaching career and the amateur dramatic society he joined "to meet girls".

He criticised the recent decision to axe the acting degree which is offered at Trinity.

"So many great actors have come out of that course . . . when I was getting into the industry there was nothing like it where an actor could be supported in an atmosphere of concern and care and learning. It's a mistake, I wish they would reconsider," he said.

At one point Byrne was asked about his spiritual beliefs and he responded with a tirade against the "tyranny" of the Catholic Church in Ireland in his youth and particularly his Christian Brother education. He recalled his fear of being beaten every day of his school life. When he recounted how one day he was pulled up from the floor by his hair by a teacher, a woman in the audience interrupted to say, "it didn't do you any harm, Gabriel look where you are now". Byrne responded sternly saying: "I know what did me harm . . . it did do me harm."

The woman left the building and the mood lifted as Byrne, who lives in New York, discussed the nature of celebrity. "You get brought back down to earth in Dublin," he said.

"A woman passed me the other day, I was wearing trainers and she said, 'you'd think with all your money you'd get a decent pair of shoes.'" He left, wearing lace-up shoes, to cheers and a standing ovation.