Actor Gabriel feared booze would kill him

VETERAN actor Gabriel Byrne has spoken of his battle with the booze admitting he feared he’d die if he didn’t quit.

The IFTA lifetime award winner told The Late Late Show on Friday how he drank to escape from himself and pressures.

But he added: “I knew I could never handle it, I was absolutely allergic to it. It was not a good thing for me to do.”

The 67-year-old, who recently became a dad for the third time, added: “My drinking was spiralling to a place where I couldn’t remember what I did.

“One day I woke up and said, ‘If I don’t stop this, I am going to die’. It took me a long time to get help, to be brave enough to say I have a problem.”