he was born in dublin and he studied at a seminary for two years before switching to an english degree, in university college dublin. he worked for a year as a primary school teacher, before becoming involved with dublin's project theatre. he appeared in nearly thirty television and film roles, and also had a solid theatre career in both dublin and london. after moving to london in 1983 he became a familiar face on uk television., with minor roles in "casualty", "the bill" and "peak practice". his success in "ballykissangel" came after overcoming cancer of the mouth for which he was diagnosed in 1990, and, despite suffering a stroke in 2000 which left him paralysed on the right side, he managed to play a similarly afflicted character in "sweet dancer" in 2005 (film unreleased).