He was a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1930 to 1932, representing the electorate of Parramatta.
He worked variously as a paper seller, dock hand, and blacksmith striker in his early life.
Parramatta had been made newly marginal by a redistribution, and amidst Labor's strong victory under Jack Lang, he won the seat from incumbent UAP MLA Herbert Lloyd.
[2] In 1932, however, Lang was sacked by the state Governor, and Byrne was one of the many casualties of Labor's heavy loss at the subsequent election.
His last run for public office was at the 1940 federal election, when he unsuccessfully contested preselection for the Senate.