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19th Mar 2023

Jason Byrne had Tommy Tiernan in bits with story about his dad

Simon Kelly

The Tommy Tiernan Show never fails.

Tommy Tiernan had some great guests on his show this weekend. Hurlers Joe and Ollie Canning, historian Liz Gillis and comedian Jason Byrne were all featured on this week’s show. The latter enjoyed some great moments on the show as the two comedians sat down to chat about life.

The Dubliner talked about various health issues he has had to deal with since he was a child, including being diagnosed with a heart condition recently.

The comedian also opened up about his deceased father and told a very honest story about his thoughts while seeing him pass away.

Jason Byrne had Tommy Tiernan in bits with story about his dad

“So, he’s leaving his body and I’m watching him, and how quickly that happens,” Byrne said.

“And how he would just let go, you could feel him letting go. His whole body sank and I went ‘oh my God’, I said ‘that took f*****g seconds.’

“I feel like a lot of the time in our lives, we’re like this,” he said tensing his hands.

“So the standup and my dad’s death and everything just came into this realisation almost, that there’s probably no need to be gripping so hard.”

Jason Byrne’s appearance on the Tommy Tiernan show.

Continuing on about his father, Byrne told a brilliant tale about his dad’s time working for Guinness, which had Tommy and the audience in stitches throughout.

“They all had contracts up until they were 65, so that means they couldn’t be sacked because the unions were very strong. So my da said it was just a load of fellas walking around Guinness with nothing to do.”

“My da said ‘there was six of us around one button in the gas plant, so five of us would go to the pub and one fella would watch the button.’

Referring to an incident in 1986 where a huge blast took place in the factory, Byrne said his dad and other workers were in the pub down the road while it happened.

Jason Byrne Tommy Tiernan Show

“They saw the smoke and walked up, and my dad of course being my dad, a messer as well, walked up to the firemen and goes ‘what happened here?'”

The fireman responded that they were looking for five people under the rubble, referring to the group of men fresh from the pub, to which his dad replied, “do you want a hand looking for them?”

He then went and counted his four other friends, and quickly saw that the man left to watch the button had just come back from the toilet.

”My da reckoned that’s why it blew up, because nobody was watching the button,” he said. “And here’s the best Irish bit, and only in Ireland; the six of them got compensation. And there was a dinner for Guinness’s six brave men. The survivors, and they weren’t even f*****g there!”

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