Gabriel Byrne on the relationship between father and son

‘Somebody said once that having children is your parent’s revenge on you. There’s a lot of truth in that’

Actor Gabriel Byrne is a contributor to a new book published by The Hospice Foundation that celebrates the relationship between fathers and sons. On this week's Roísín Meets podcast he speaks about how his own father struggled with social and economic changes in his lifetime, and why he supports the hospice movement.

On being a father: “Children don’t always listen to you, they go away, they come back they disagree with you politically, and yet you know they love you and you love them. Somebody said once that having children is your parent’s revenge on you. There’s a lot of truth in that.”

On his support for the hospice movement: “Through a personal experience I had of two people I was close to who died in not the most wonderful of situations in a public ward. I also lost somebody who was taken care of in a hospice situation, and I saw the difference in the way they were taken care of and they way their last agonies were relieved, and the tremendous care and compassion... the atmosphere of the public hospital militated against the easier passage from life to death.”

The book, Sons+Fathers, is being published by Penguin Random House and Hospice Press and is available to buy now.