Byrne combined several careers most notably as a playwright and an artist. He worked for the theatre company 7:84 and designed the sets for one of the most famous plays of the post war years: John McGrath’s The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil. In his own play, The Slab Boys, Byrne drew on his experience as a paint mixer in a Paisley carpet factory. His more recent work has included the highly acclaimed television series Tutti Frutti and Your Cheating Heart.