Popular Fair City star opens up about tragic death of his father
Tony's father was tragically killed in a car crash in 1980 when the actor was just 16-years-old.
The Dubliner – who plays Paul Brennan in the RTE One soap – said the accident completely changed the trajectory of his life and his outlook on life.
The family, including his sister Barbara and mum Betty had spent their early years living on Dublin's Baggot Street and had moved to Finglas just before the accident happened.
Having had ambitions to go to art college, Tony and his sister Barbara had to take up work after finishing school, with Tony getting a job in the pathology lab at St James's Hospital.
"That was a big blow to us", he says looking back on that time.
"That set me back a lot, in terms of talking to people; I really went into myself and not in a bad way but I guess back then it wasn't encouraged to talk about those things. Something like that happening takes you to a different place; you're carefree and then all of a sudden that's gone and it's always in the back of your head.
'It was a tough time, but it either makes you or breaks you. And also I found myself as the man of the house, I had to go out and start working,' he told the RTE Guide.
After a few years of working at the hospital, he took what he describes as a "mad notion to give up the job and pursue acting."
After seeing an advert, he enrolled in the Gaiety School of Acting, where he was encouraged by director Joe Dowling, who subsequently offered him a part in Borstal Boy.
In 1989, Tony landed the role as Paul Brennan on Fair City and he said his mother Betty would pretend she didn't watch the soap.
"She did but she'd pretend she didn't! But you'd hear from other people that she was proud, she just wouldn't say it to your face."
His mother Betty sadly died last winter at the age of 92. He commends the team at St Francis's Hospice in Blanchardstown, where she spent the last six months of her life.
"It was a tough time," he said.
"We were up with her every day, but I have to say, the team there, they were absolutely brilliant, they made her feel like a queen. And they were great to us too. You find yourself as an orphan and that's hard, but what can you do, you have to get on with it,' he added.
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