He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1982 [2] His work is in the collection of both Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Hugh Lane Gallery.
[5] In the early 1980s, when St Peter's Church on Aungier Street in Dublin was being demolished Tyrrell salvaged timber from the building which became the material for a series of three-dimensional paintings.
When working with wood Tyrrell uses a number of techniques as well as applying paint including cutting, scoring, burning and sanding.
[6] Tyrrell visited America in the 80s and has cited Colour Field Painters Kenneth Nolan and Morris Louis as well as Mark Rothko, and the Abstract Expressionists more generally as early influences.
Looking at Sol Lewitt I appreciate its mathematical reductivism but I always come forward from that.”[8] He has also said that ancient Assyrian relief sculpture had influenced his work in an interview with Brian McAvera.