Patricia McKenna looks back on her schooldays in Monaghan when she was a bit of a `troublemaker'

I CAN honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself at school - St Louis' Convent, Monaghan - but maybe not for the right reasons. I don't think that the teachers were too impressed with me and I was hardly what you'd call a model student.

My younger sister was very studious, but I never studied and always seemed to be in trouble.

St Louis' was originally an all Irish boarding school, but by the time I started in 1969 it was becoming a day school and lessons through Irish were being phased out.

In first year I took all my subjects through Irish, but in second year - to my relief - we began to learn through English, which I found much easier.

The school was located in lovely old convent buildings, which contained a rabbit warren of inter connecting, wood panelled rooms. These were a great challenge to the more adventurous students, and my friends and I would regularly skip off school and explore forgotten areas of the property.

When I started at St Louis', the nuns all wore long, old fashioned habits and looked quite formidable. But before I left the whole thing had changed and they started to wear shorter skirts and appeared less intimidating. I was never frightened of them, and although I was regularly reprimanded, the nuns never bore grudges. It was only when I started teaching myself, that I realised what a troublemaker I had been at school and how much hassle I had given the nuns. I could have worked a lot harder than I did, but I always managed to get through my exams.

The only subject I really loved was art and it was my ambition to become a fashion designer. However, the nun who was our career guidance teacher told me that I should be more realistic about my future and consider teaching or nursing like everyone else. This put me off my stride and I spent the next few years wondering what I should do.

I left school and took a series of jobs in shops and did a secretarial course. But after three years, I knew that I really wanted to study art and I went first to Letterkenny RTC, then Limerick School of Art and finally the NCAD in Dublin. It was when I was in college that I became involved in politics.

I tried to make a living out of painting but found it impossible. I started to teach part time but discovered that it was difficult to continue to do my own work. I had my own studio in Temple Bar until 1989, but by then politics had taken over my life.