Jason Byrne: 'Because of what I’ve been through, none of this s**t scares me anymore'

This Much I Know: "I don’t think anybody’s ‘born’ to be the person they are – it literally is the decisions you make."

Jason Byrne: blowing his own horn at the Everyman

I grew up in Ballinteer. Just to tell you how much of a bubble it was, I’d never heard of The Five Lamps. I used to work with PJ Gallagher back when we were in ‘proper jobs’ and he said – you know the joke – ‘Jason, do you know The Five Lamps?’ And I was supposed to say ‘yeah’ and he’d say ‘well, hang your b*llocks off them’ but it didn’t land because I’d never heard of them.

I had the best childhood ever. We had a big green in front of our house and we were out all the time. We were able to go up the mountains to Ticknock. We set things on fire. We nearly killed ourselves doing all sorts of mad shit. Three swings snapped on me. I wasn’t accident-prone but I was one of those nervous kids who just wouldn’t do things properly.