We were `the country girls'

The first school I went to was Newcastle National School in Co Dublin, which was very close to where we lived. I was there until third class, then from fourth class to first year in secondary I went to Goldenbridge in Inchicore because my parents were anxious for me to have a convent education. The nearest convent school was in Clondalkin, but at the time it was full. After four years in Goldenbridge I got into Clondalkin Presentation School, so I went to three schools for roughly four years each.

When I was in school in Newcastle it was co-ed. I remember brawls in the schoolyard with a neighbour of mine. He and I had a huge brawl one day and I went home bawling crying. I was very quiet and shy when I was at school, so I was probably a lot more suited to a single-sex convent school.

Goldenbridge was attached to a large orphanage and because it was so far away, I stayed in the classroom at lunchtime. It was a very long lunch break and most of the children went home for their lunch, but we used to have to stay in the classroom, have our lunch and then study. A number of people from Newcastle, Rathcoole and Saggart went there, we were always known as "the country girls". A lot of the girls in the class lived in flats near Goldenbridge, I thought it was fantastic to have children living beside you, above you and underneath you, because I lived out in the country where there was no-one really that close.

I remember trying to convince my parents to move in there. My father had a 39-acre farm and five children, so we certainly couldn't have been wealthy, but I was never conscious of that aspect of things. Certainly, there were a lot of children there from very poor backgrounds. The flats were in Keogh Square, which was subsequently knocked down and rebuilt as St Michael's Estate. We always got milk and bread and jam every day and on a Friday we got a currant bun. When I went to Clondalkin all that was discontinued. I think there was a policy then to feed children because the parents weren't well off and maybe the children weren't getting the nourishment they needed at home.

I made my confirmation when I was in Goldenbridge. We didn't have a car at the time, so my mother and I went on the bus and she bought me a grey suit in Arnotts. My mother always bought clothes that were too big. The idea was they'd last and you'd grow into them. So I had what I regarded as a very hicky suit and all the other girls had lovely short dresses. I was feeling really old-fashioned and country and not glamorous at all. It's just so vivid in my head, having to go into the church in this dowdy, dreadful thing. It was probably a very expensive and very good suit, but as far as I was concerned I was the one in the long dress and eveybody else was dressed as I wanted to be.

Any of the things that have come to light in recent times about Goldenbridge weren't evident to me at all when I was there. It was very strict though, very different from Clondalkin. The whole ethos was different in Clondalkin. They were very much into personal development and debating and public speaking. I debated for the school on the Irish and the English teams and acquired public-speaking skills. When I look back on it now, it was the best education I got. It gave me great confidence. Other that that, I probably never would have gone into politics because I wouldn't have had the confidence to articulate a point of view.

The head nun there, Sr Paul, was wonderful. Her attitude to education for the times that were in it was very broad. It wasn't all about books and exams, it was as much about developing the person and bring out the best in them and making everybody feel they had talents.

I taught for a year in Castleknock College in 1976 and I hated students who were like me, the goody-goody students. My sister Geraldine was much more flamboyant than me and had a more developed personality and sense of fun. When she subsequently went to Clondalkin, the nuns used to say to her, "You're not like your sister, she was so quiet". So my parents moved Geraldine out of Clondalkin. They felt it was unfair on her because I had been the real teachers' pet.

In conversation with Olivia Kelly