2 cool 4 skool?

TV presenter Mark Cagney tells it how it was

Where did you go to school?

Christian Brothers College, MacCurtain Street, Cork.

Were you cool or were you one of the nerdy kids?

I was troublesome, rebellious and a pain in the ass (so they tell me). so none of the above.

Give us an extract of a school report

See above

Who was your favourite teacher in primary school? Why?

A man called Brother Walsh, he was young, energetic, cool, all the mothers thought he was really good looking - they used to say things like "What a waste" or "He's too good-looking to be a Christian Brother" or "He's the image of Robert Taylor, the movie star." None of this meant anything to me, but he took an interest in me, and he encouraged all the things in me that gave the other teachers the aforementioned pain in the ass.

How about secondary school? Anyone who you liked/ inspired you?

Hated it. No. John Lennon

Did you have a nickname?

Marcus Welby, which was a popular TV show at the time, about a kindly old doctor and his young partner. It had no real relevance to me and was distinctly lacking in imagination, but that's what you get when you to a school full of rugger buggers. Then one genius had a flash of inspiration, and it became Marcus Monkey. He's now a big noise in banking!

What was the first music album you bought?

The first singles I got were Roy Orbison's Blue Bayou (for the B-side, Mean Woman Blues ) and the Beatles' I Wanna Hold your Hand . I think the first album I actually bought was On the Boards by Rory Gallagher, but I had a friend called Kevin Moynihan who was great for (permanently) loaning me LPs, and he gave me albums by the Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Little Feat, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin .

Mark Cagney presents Ireland AM on TV3

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times