Gabriel Byrne is a man of many parts. The former archaelogist, novice priest, schoolteacher, cook, messenger boy and plumber — who even tried his hand at bullfighting — has long since morphed into a multi-award winning actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator.

David Gest has been diagnosed with a tumour in his neck.

What I do: I do lots of things. At the moment I am playing the part of Beauty in the Everyman Palace Theatre Christmas Panto, Beauty and the Beast, which is hard work, but great fun.

Photographer John Minihan recalls his encounters with writer Edna O’Brien, from London in the 1970s to Cork this year