Barry Keoghan still 'haunted' by role in 'Greatest Irish TV show' that sickened fans to their core

It's hard to tell whether Barry Keoghan is a rising star or just a genuine bona fide big name by now, but there's a role from his past that he is still 'haunted' by.

You'll know him from the likes of Saltburn, Dunkirk and The Banshees of Inisherin, but there's a role early in his career which you might not have seen.

It'd be a shame if you hadn't as Keoghan once starred in a crime series which was described as the 'greatest Irish TV show', which if you're interested in checking out is now available to stream on ITVX.

This show was Love/Hate, a five season gangster drama about Dublin's criminal underworld, and Keoghan etched himself into the minds of viewers with a particularly startling scene.

In Love/Hate, he plays Wayne and in the opening episode of the show's fourth season his character is showing off a gun when he decides to demonstrate how it works.

Wayne shoots a cat dead and then laughs about it, and Keoghan has admitted that the scene has rather followed him around ever since.

RTE

He said: "I’ll never get away from that cat.

"I was in the MetLife stadium in New Jersey about two years ago.

"I think there was about 90,000 people there and someone pulled me and said, 'You’re the guy that shot the cat'.

"I just thought, 'Ah here, I’m halfway across the world and someone said it'."

Of course, the actual Barry Keoghan is 'not like that in real life' and if you're wondering what actually happened to the cat, they had to bring it out on the Late Late Show just to prove it was still alive.

So there you go, Barry Keoghan does not shoot cats, he just played someone who did on TV.

RTE

It's 'haunted' him ever since and he might never lose the label of the cat killer, even though we once again have to stress that it was a TV show and not real.

At the BAFTAs, Vogue Williams told The Mirror she was excited to see Keoghan as he was 'b****y amazing' and she'd loved him ever since his appearance in Love/Hate.

However, she then admitted 'he creeped us all out by killing the cat' and 'we'll never let him live that down'.

Don't let cat-gate get in the way of your enjoyment of a fantastic TV show though, as Love/Hate was adored by critics and audiences so you've got a good opportunity to watch it.

Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, Barry Keoghan

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker