John Byrne (playwright)
John Patrick Byrne (born 6 January 1940) is a Scottish playwright and artist. He wrote "The Slab Boys Trilogy", plays which explore working-class life in Scotland, and the TV dramas "Tutti Frutti" and "Your Cheatin' Heart". Byrne is also a painter, printmaker and theatre designer. Life. John Byrne was born into a family of Irish Catholic descent in Paisley, Renfrewshire, where he grew up in the Ferguslie Park housing scheme and was educated at the town's St Mirin's Academy before attending Glasgow School of Art (1958–63). His mother, Alice McShane, was married to Patrick  Byrne at the time of his birth. Byrne was conceived of an incestuous affair between his mother and her father, Patrick McShane. He did not know the truth about his parentage until he was informed by his cousin in 2002. He was initially angered by the revelation, but eventually reconciled with the truth of his lineage. He created The John Byrne Awards. Work. Art. From 1964 until 1966, Byrne designed jackets for Penguin Books. Having had his work rejected by various galleries, Byrne had success following an exhibition of works at London's Portal Gallery in 1967. Painted under the  pseudonym of "Patrick", Byrne claimed the dream-like paintings were created by his father, an alleged self-taught painter of "faux-naïf" images. Byrne's career as a professional painter started in 1968, when he left Stoddard's. As well as designing the scenery for his own plays Byrne, in collaboration with director Robin Lefrevre, also designed the settings for Snoo Wilson's "The Number of the Beast" (Bush 1982) and Clifford Odets' The Country Girl (Apollo Theatre 1983). Byrne's best-known art works are arguably the album covers he created for friend Gerry Rafferty and his former bands  The Humblebums and Stealers Wheel, among them the covers for "City to City" and "Night Owl". Rafferty's early solo song "Patrick" is about Byrne.