One OF the abiding memories of my schooldays is the way we used to hastily get rid of the leather or stick any time a teacher went out of the room. They had to keep replenishing them and they never knew exactly who was responsible. I spent my national school years at St Patrick's, Drumcondra, where Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was two years below me. I liked school. St Patrick's was a training college, so we always had different student teachers coming and going. In those days, there was no such thing as getting a lift to school. I lived 20 minutes away and walked there and back twice a day, because we also went home for lunch.

Highlights of my schooldays were making my first communion and participating and singing in the Feis Ceoil. I was an average student but enjoyed collecting stars for good work. By the time I was 10 years old, I was slipping into town on the bus after school, to work in my father's tailoring business.

I always wanted to go into the business and never wanted to go to secondary school. It's something that I probably regret now and maybe I should have gone back to nightschool later. I went, instead to the technical school in Parnell Square to study tailoring and textiles. Once I got the City and Guilds exam I went to work in a clothing factory. John Barron and Co, which traded under the brand name Two Owls, was a large company, making men's and children's suits in High St. One of my memories was the regular visits by the chairman, a tall well-dressed man who wore a monacle and who arrived in what seem to me like a Rolls Royce - it was a big car anyway. It was Major McDowell, who went on to play a similar role in The Irish Times.

It was hard work. You had to be in by 8am. If you were a few minutes late, you were locked out until 9 o'clock. I stayed for two years, serving my time as an apprentice tailor. When the factory closed down, I went straight into work for my father. By then I was a fully qualified tailor and cutter, which means that not only can I sew, I can also draft and create patterns. I've found that knowledge very useful in my business.

In those days, Louis Copeland's was a 100 per cent made-to-measure tailoring business. It was just a small shop with a workshop attached. There were 25 to 30 people in the workroom. We used to make for own business and for other shops. Nowadays, 80 per cent of our business is ready-to-wear and we have shops in Wicklow St and Pembroke St. We still have a workshop, though, with 12 people making suits, theatre costumes and legal wear.

I love what I do and I'd love to see my son coming into the business. He's just graduated from TCD in BSS and he's in San Diego, working for Gap.