Where did all this news come from!? I’m swimming in Gabriel Reports and Gabriel Pictures and Gabriel-Related-Tidbits! Oh. Does that sound like I’m complaining? Oh no, I’m not!

Following up on Part 1 of April’s Byrne-ing News, Part 2 focuses on big and small screen news, even more real estate activity, a Blast from the Past (which seems to be a regular feature now), a whimsical nod to Byron, Twitter observations, and a librarian’s lament (and vindication). Read on and then get ready for Part 3, which is all Gabriel Art by professional photographers and artists, as well as some fan art, too.

Film News: Murder at Yellowstone City

As you probably know by now, Gabriel’s Montana adventure, Murder at Yellowstone City, is set to be released on June 24, both in theaters and on demand. Check out this posting for more details. Filming completed last summer, so we’ve been patiently (!) waiting and poking around Instagram feeds and keeping our eyes peeled for news all these months. And now the waiting is almost over. The press for the film describes it as “edgy,” which is pretty much how I would describe *us* at this point! Can’t wait to see Mr. Byrne donning that black hat and running the town as Sheriff Ambrose. Hi Yo, Gabriel!

Shared by director Richard Gray on his Instagram:
Gabriel Byrne keeping the peace at the local watering hole

Film News: Death of a Ladies’ Man

I only mention this to torture, I mean, console you. My anonymous friend in the business, who has shared many lovely Gabriel-related items from film festivals and other events over the years, lives in Germany. She snapped this pic at her local theater. So! Germany is lucky. We will continue to wait for a US/UK/Canada release of Death of a Ladies’ Man until someone tells us to stop. Yes!? Yes. heart

Thanks, my friend. This hurts so good. And I hope you enjoyed the film. wink

Film News: Into The Night

OVID.tv is a streaming service that offers a wide array of documentaries, as well as independent and animated films. You can stream these titles on many different devices, they offer a free 7-day trial, and currently you can get a 50% discount if you subscribe for one year.

Into The Night is one of many documentaries in which Gabriel has participated and it is now available. If you have not seen it, you should! Here’s your chance.

Television News: War of the Worlds, Season 3

Looper provides an update on Season 3 of Gabriel’s compelling science fiction series, War of the Worlds, which is currently in post-production. Season 2 premiered in the USA last June, so may we expect Season 3 to beam into our screens this summer? Stay tuned!

At this point, there’s no telling how Season 3 will unfold, though the aforementioned press release from Epix does provide some clues as to what audiences can expect. Byrne will return, it reveals, as the series’ reluctant and self-sacrificing protagonist, while newcomers Molly Windsor (of “Cheat”), Madeleine Worrall, Oliver Hembrough (of “The White Princess”), and Ernest Kingsley Junior will be joining the cast.

The EPIX Press Release has been available since last year. Below is the announcement from the 2022 SBS Australia Upfronts.

Blast from the Past

If you experienced (I can’t say “watched” because that does not do it justice) Gabriel’s stage play Walking With Ghosts, based on his memoir, at the Gaiety Theater or later, via streaming, then you will recall his hilarious, but also rather poignant, reminiscence about his time with the amateur theater group The Dublin Shakespeare Society. Below is a tidbit from the Dublin Camera Club, shared by Terry O’Brien. The portrait, by someone known only as “Simon,” was accepted and hung at the club’s annual exhibition in 1975. It is unclear what role Gabriel is playing, if indeed he is in character at all. The “©” in the center of the photo is a copyright mark.

Gabriel Archeology is always fun, isn’t it?

More Real Estate News: Dublin

Once upon a time, Gabriel Byrne had a house in Dublin. Did he ever live there? No one knows. He sold this house and went on his way. The current owners have decided it is their turn to sell this house now.

And what a house it is!

The Irish Times says:

The actor’s mews: Former home of Gabriel Byrne on Herbert Lane for €1.65m

With four bedrooms and two lovely outside spaces, this is a very special city-centre home

From their lowly origins to provide a space for a horse and carriage, and where a young ostler might nap upstairs, mews properties have been a big hit since the back lanes of Dublin 2 and 4 proved viable options for the conversion of old equine sheds. Though their location is the real selling point, one of the traditional issues with mews properties was that sites were narrow and properties were dark.

This is certainly not the case at 57 Herbert Lane. Not only is the property bright and airy, it has four bedrooms and measures 213sq m (2,293sq ft), which equates to almost double the size of an average home in Ireland.

The property was purchased by the current owner from actor Gabriel Byrne, who developed the four-bedroom property in the 1990s.

On the ground floor lies an L-shaped living and dining room, warmed by an Adam’s-style marble fireplace bearing the Byrne coat of arms “Certavi et Vici”, which translates as “I have fought and conquered”.

If you were ever contemplating a move to Dublin, here’s your chance!

Trapped in a Cabin with Byron

George Gordon, Lord Byron

What!!??

From Ron Charles, who pens The Washington Post Book Club Newsletter, a weekly round-up of book news and articles (and it is FREE to everyone), we have this rather startling but totally fun report:

After two years of COVID lockdown, you’re ready to play “Trapped in a Cabin With Lord Byron.”

It’s the latest role-playing game from Oliver Darkshire, our favorite antiquarian bookseller.

In February, Darkshire, who works at Sotheran’s in London, released Bookstore, a game that lets players experience the soul-crushing anxiety of being a harried bookseller with rent due in 10 days.

His new game is inspired by that famous 1816 vacation when Byron and his friends were cooped up in a Swiss villa writing ghost stories. Their parties were better than our parties: Mary Shelley started “Frankenstein”; Byron and his personal physician, John Polidori, worked on vampire tales.

In Darkshire’s game, players roll dice to choose from 18 Byronic Events that determine their Stress, Scandal and Masterpiece Creation scores:

“His half-sister is here, and they are far too intimate.” (+2 Scandal)
“He’s brought his pet bear. It is not trained.” (+2 Stress)
“He’s found a new skull to use as a goblet.” (+3 Scandal)

If your Stress score reaches 10, for example, you lose your patience with Byron “and either kill him in a fit of rage or otherwise descend into uncontrollable weeping from which you never emerge.”

Sounds like fun! mindblown

And it also sounds like the perfect game to play this Halloween, after watching Gothic! I’ll play, but only if Byron looks like this:

Why I Love(d) Twitter

Twitter’s future, or rather my use of it, may be in question, but I’ll always appreciate it. Some reasons why:

One: People

You meet the most amazing people on Twitter. I have been a fan of David Morrissey since State of Play (2003) and, although I’ve never watched The Walking Dead, so I missed him there, he’s been spectacular in that strange and heady brew called Britannia, in which he portrays the increasingly erratic but always riveting General Aulus.

So I was really happy when this popped up in my Twitter timeline:

I tweeted a response in which I thanked him for his kind words and also mentioned that I loved him as Aulus. He replied that Gabriel’s book was truly stunning and he wished he’d seen the play. And then, dear readers, HE FOLLOWED ME.

After I picked myself up from the floor, I followed him back. One great reason to love Twitter!

Two: Memorabilia

People share their treasures on Twitter with delight and even occasional glee! Movie goodies (posters, signed photos, lobby cards, action figures, you name it, it’s on Twitter somewhere!) are always popping up in my timeline–and Gabriel Byrne Movies have the best collectors, as you will see.

First tweet and My Response
Second response and The Goodies!
Not everyone is a collector, but for those of us who love this stuff: CHEF’S KISS!

Three: Sharing

A board game based on Gabriel’s 1983 film The Keep was published and now someone has purchased it on eBay.

I would never have known such a thing existed had it not been for this lovely person sharing their delight on Twitter.

There are “plastic pawns” included in the game’s contents. Can you imagine?

A mini-Major Kaempffer is in this box? Be still our hearts.

Archival Scholarship

So, I’ve been feeling a little vulnerable lately.

On a whim, I visited YouTube and uploaded ALL of the episodes of Gabriel Byrne’s Irish television series Bracken that I had acquired, and I just put them out there for everyone in the entire world to just watch just whenever they wanted to and and and . . .

I don’t own them. I don’t own the copyright. I don’t have permission to do this.

I just did it. Why? Because you cannot watch this series ANYWHERE. And now you can.

Matt Zoller Seitz, the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism tweeted this back in February and I grabbed it then because, my goodness, he is right.

Now, he is NOT talking about illegally downloading that last episode of Game of Thrones from a file-sharing site. Who would do that, anyway!? No, he’s talking about MY situation exactly.

And now I feel better. I feel like the librarian I am. So I’ll leave those Brackens up in YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

I love my job. heart

Part 3 of the April Byrne-ing News will be along shortly.

PS. In the header image for Part 1 of the Byrne-ing News, I placed Gabriel in a shot I had taken when I visited Ireland in 2014. In Part 2, up above, you see him in Maine, from a recent pic shared by a political writer I follow. And in Part 3? Who knows? It’s Spring where I am. Maybe I’ll drop him into a pile of spring flowers. Let’s see what happens!

6 Comments

  1. Corazón de Irlanda

    True, but then you get confused when some of us use different names here than on Twitter!

    Love,
    Corazón de Irlanda
    (aka Dayanara!)

    • I do! But eventually I get most of you straight in my head. I have multiple names/accounts myself, so I understand the desire for personal account diversity! ;-)

  2. Wow. Such a lot going on. That photo of Gabriel from the 1970’s is very compeling and so rare. Thank you Stella for keeping us in the loop!

    • Good to see you here, Angelle. <3

      The World of Byrne is always roaring with activity, even when HE might be on vacation . . .

      :-P

  3. GabrielFanWicklow

    I completely and wholeheartedly agree with Matt. It’s difficult to describe the special place Bracken holds in the hearts of those who watched it growing up. My grandmother never had a television so it was a weekly treat for my father, growing up in rural Ireland, to pop into the neighbours to watch it. It was a highlight and a talking point in villages and towns where real issues were reflected.

    Despite years (decades now) of wishes to see it released on DVD or aired again, it hasn’t happened and it likely never will. I cannot count how many times my father said to me “If you ever see Bracken…”. And thanks to Stella I did. He has happily watched every single episode on several occasions since. There is nothing I could have purchased in terms of boxsets or movies that could have had the same impact yet Stella shared it with all of us for free.

    This site not only serves to preserve and catalogue Gabriel’s rich acting legacy and his early career in Ireland, it’s a wonderful space for us all to visit and share those memories spanning generations.

    ‘I’m a product of my Irish culture, and I could no more lose that than I could my sense of identity’ -Gabriel Byrne

    • Oh, GFW! What lovely things to say!

      I am so happy that my slightly scary foray into the world of YouTube publishing has resulted in the delight of both you and your father. If you read the comments on these Bracken episodes on YouTube, you will see that there are many who feel as you do.

      And that just makes my work that much sweeter! Thanks again! <3

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