ABSTRACT
I was born and grew up in a working-class area of Dublin in a post-war local authority housing estate. I was a mild-mannered boy in a sometimes tough neighbourhood. I was called names at school and tended to avoid team sports, engaging in the more solitary field sports when pressed into compulsory physical education. I gravitated towards the ‘geeky’ intellectual types in secondary school. Against the norm and expectation in the area, I actively sought to carry on education to Leaving Certificate Standard (completed at aged 17 or 18 years). I was the only one to go to this level in my family, and one of only a handful of my peer group from my estate. While the appeal of a college education beckoned, at that time it was not possible for my family to afford to support me through college. I entered the labour market in a variety of office jobs, rather than the trades that my brothers had followed. Eventually, I settled in a law firm as a para-legal and began further education through various evening classes, culminating in a Legal Diploma.
