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25th Sep 2021

Jason Byrne forced to cancel tour dates due to a heart condition

Stephen Porzio

Tommy Tiernan has stepped in to replace him for a gig next month.

Jason Byrne has been forced to cancel part of his British tour and pull out of a Vicar Street gig due to a heart condition.

In a video posted to his Twitter page, the Irish comedian apologised and explained that after going for a run recently, he felt pains in his chest.

“I went to A&E… got loads of tests and eventually they found three blockages. So, around early October, we’re going to have to get a couple of stents thrown in,” he said.

“Before anybody jumps on, no it was not the vaccine. I had… heart professors all around me telling me exactly what was wrong with me, so my heart hasn’t enlarged, there’s no blood clots. It’s actually hereditary.”

https://twitter.com/thejasonbyrne/status/1441667475448504321

Byrne also took the opportunity to urge people to get their own hearts checked.

“I’m fit and I’m underweight and I don’t smoke and I don’t barely ever drink, so I plead to anybody out there – just go and get yourself checked because you don’t even know that you’ll have any clogging up in your arteries,” he said.

The comedian hopes to be back on tour at the start of November and stated he is working hard to reschedule the cancelled gigs.

While the cancellations will mostly affect his British tour, Byrne was set to perform as part of the Vision Live at Vicar Street series on 3 October in a line-up also including Barry Murphy, Ian Coppinger, Sinéad Quinlan and Willie White.

Ticketmaster has announced that Tommy Tiernan will perform in place of Byrne for the Vision show and wished Byrne a speedy recovery.

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