I was born in Dublin and started school at the Sacred Heart, Leeson Street. My mother was a chemistry graduate and she was keen for me to study science so she sent me to Our Lady's School, Terenure. It was a new school with a modern approach and importantly for my mother, boasted a science lab - which was unusual for a girls' schools at that time. The nuns were mostly young, English, had university degrees and had held down jobs before they entered the convent.

I grew up in 1, Fitzwilliam Place which in those days was still full of families. Going to Terenure every day was like going to the country. The school was surrounded by fields and I could play in the woods during my breaks.

I loved school, but I was a bit on the wild side - especially in primary school where I was regarded as the ring leader of `divilment.'

I wasn't particularly academic. I was more interested in the arts. I loved painting, languages and drama but I found maths and science a bit of a struggle.

I started playing piano at the age of five and, when I was 12, took up the cello.

As a youngster I was madly interested in tennis. The walls of the houses around Fitzwilliam Square were perfect for practice. I was under-15 junior tennis champion and under-18 doubles champion. When I was 17 - a year before my Wimbledon trial - I talked to the president of the Lawn Tennis Association who advised me to give up tennis in favour of music.

I gave it up completely, which in retrospect I regret. Music can make you very introverted. I encourage my students to continue with sport - the exercise and companionship it provides is important.

Between the ages of 12 and 18, I studied the cello at the Royal Irish Academy of Music under the New Zealander, Corral Boghuda. During the Fifties and Sixties she taught most of my generation of cellists.

Then I moved to the Paris Conservatoire to work with Paul Tortelier. As a teacher he was electrifying and extremely colourful. His wife and his children, including his son Yan Pascal Tortelier, the famous conductor, were all fabulously beautiful.

I loved the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Paris in the Sixties. Ireland was still fairly repressed but Paris was amazing and so beautiful - absolutely gorgeous. I used to whizz around the city on a little motorised bicycle - all the students had them. But life wasn't all plain-sailing. My life wasn't balanced and I became very introverted.

After five years I returned to Dublin to teach at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Eight years later I joined the orchestra.

Opportunities for musicians have improved here in recent years, but salaries in the orchestra are low. You have to do a lot of other things to make ends meet.

My life has been transformed recently by the discovery of a gadget to strengthen my fingers. It means I don't have to spend at least half an hour every day practising for fitness, and can spend my time doing more interesting work.