The late John Kelly was a big influence and shaped what I did, recalls Mary Redmond

I started off in Muckross Park, Dublin but, because my sister was interested in doing languages, all five of us moved to Loreto on the Green. We were called "the five pennies" on the 46A bus, because we used to ask for five, penny fares.

I have very pleasant memories of both schools but it was at Loreto that I developed an interest in debating. It was taken seriously there, and I was captain of debating when we won the Inter-Schools Debating Competition in both my third and fifth years.

I also won the Gael-Linn Leinster Individual Speakers Medal. The Gael-Linn debates, which were in Irish, were a very good discipline and certainly helped to improve my ability in the language. The Loreto nuns really cared and went to a lot of trouble to give people individual tuition.

I couldn't decide whether to do law or medicine at university. The debating side of me was very strong and my late father, who was chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, used to bring home journals from the office, which he thought might interest me. I felt drawn to law and went to UCD on a Latin bursary.

The freedom of going to university was fantastic but during my first year I was unhappy with my choice of discipline. We were studying legal history, philosophy, history and Irish. I had a lot of angst about whether I was going in the right direction. I had been good at maths at school and wondered whether I shouldn't be doing that.

At the end of second year, though, I got first place and a first-class honours and realised that I must be good at it. But I also found coming first a burden - it's better to wait until your final exam.

I decided to do a H-Dip and commenced a LLM at the same time. The late John Kelly, who was dean of the law faculty, called me into discuss my future and recommended I put my name forward for a Winter Williams Commonwealth Scholarship to Oxford.

Professor Kelly was a big influence and shaped what I did. I withdrew from the H-Dip and worked hard to complete my law master's. I also had a solicitor's apprenticeship with Arthur Cox, which I was considering giving up, but thankfully, was advised against it.

By this time, I had developed my interest in labour law and decided that I would specialise in this at Sommerville College, Oxford.

After a year in Oxford, I replied to a UCD advertisement to teach John Kelly's subjects - because he had been elected to the Dail. I got the job but had to give up Oxford and my research fizzled out. A few years later I spent a summer in Rome studying labour law. I put together a course and started teaching it at UCD the following autumn.

I still wanted to do a doctorate, so I took leave of absence from UCD and went to Christ College, Cambridge, on a British Council scholarship. It was strange moving from UCD to Cambridge, where colleges were only just beginning to admit women. I moved to Churchill College and became director of studies and later returned to Christ's, where I taught for five years. I was the college's first female tutor. By 1985, I had decided to set up as a solicitor in Dublin, specialising in employment law. There are certain things I miss about Cambridge, but I also love practising as a solicitor.

I believe that in order to really know your subject, it's very important to teach it and write about it. It keeps you at the edge. I've just finished a book on dismissal law (published by Butterworths). The bloom hasn't worn off my career. It's not about things - it's about people and I like that.

Mary Redmond, founder of the hospice movement, was in conversation with Yvonne Healy