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I started off in Mourne Road School in Drimnagh, Dublin, which I went to as a "low baby". Even at the beginning they tell you you're a "low baby". What kind of a message is that? I can safely say I had absolutely no idea what was going on for the first three years. I might as well have been catatonic. I sat looking out of the window in the dunce's row. I didn't even know what dunce meant, I was oblivious. I couldn't fathom why we were sent there every day, I felt it was some sort of game I didn't understand.

The only thing I was slightly good at was maths. I found it very easy and that utterly confused them, because being in the dunce's row, I shouldn't have been able to add or anything. That was my passport out of there. I was ceremoniously moved one day - which was great, a milestone - when I was six.