I started with the Mercy nuns when I was four or five and I didn't like it one bit. My mother would bring me and when she'd let go of my hand I'd do a runner. I wasn't a keen scholar at that stage. I'm told by my older sisters that I displayed temper tantrums. Then the harsh reality of the necessity of education was brought to bear on me. From the Mercy nuns, I went to the Christian Brothers primary school in Newry and then I went on to the Christian Brothers secondary school. I liked mathematics more than any other subject.

I had two brothers, one older and one younger. There was about a year and a bit between each of us. We would walk up to school together and come home at lunch. My two older sisters went to the Mercy Convent.

I could usually get top of the class. In fifth class I remember the book I won for being first was one of Enid Blyton's, Five Get Into Trouble. We would devour books because there was no television. Children don't do that now to the same extent.

I found school easy enough, but I would have much preferred to have been good at Gaelic football. I thought I would have been wonderful only for my eyesight. I was quite shortsighted.

Some of the Christian Brothers used to come and play cards with us in the house. My father was a publican and from an early enough age I would have worked in the bar. You got to meet a great variety of people there. It was a bar which was mixed - both Protestants and Catholics, but that meant that conversation was limited because you couldn't talk about politics or religion and they didn't talk about sex. We talked a lot about horse racing and from an early age I was backing horses. I was very interested in sport and the horses.

I don't remember studying hard. They were very encouraging at home for all of us to stay at school and complete our education. My father would have left school quite early and my mother had been in the post office. You'd sit down and do your homework but there was no great pressure.

I had a very good Latin teacher - Paddy Arthur Crinion. He was a good old-fashioned schoolmaster who knew an awful lot of Latin and he used to lend me books by Cicero and Livy.

I did four A-Levels - Latin, History, Irish and mathematics in 1957. Nil ach beagan Gaeilge agam anois.

I didn't always look forward to going off to school. The Christian Brothers were not sparing when it came to corporal punishment. There were times when you would feel slight anxiety - it was a fairly disciplined environment.

The school itself was a bit ramshackle. We used to play handball off the back school wall. I remember it shook a bit, but to be fair the school provided an education for many who would not otherwise have had an education. Even though the leather was used more than would be desirable, it depended on the particular teacher.

Being good at Latin, I remember there was a class test coming up and one of the chaps got hold of the Latin tests. It was brought to me to do the translation. I don't know whether the class benefited but it did my reputation no harm.

There was great rivalry between our school, the Abbey, and St Colman's College on Violet Hill in Newry. The Abbey won the 1956 McRory Cup, which was the senior Gaelic football championship in Ulster.

At the height of the football season, a number of us got together to create the Abbey Supporter, a poster with cartoons and writings where we would make mild fun of the teachers. We did one every week or so and we'd put it up secretly in the school. My brother, Peter, was a very good cartoonist. It was well done - in colour. The brothers pretended to be displeased but I think they were secretly delighted to be mentioned.

I went through school with the same group of boys. I stayed on for an extra year as I was too young to go to university. A number of us went up to Queen's from Newry.

Through listening to cricket on the radio and reports from John Arllot, we got interested in cricket. We used play a bit after school, but in school it was regarded as a foreign game. One evening we were spotted by one of the Christian Brothers who was passing in the train. The next day at school came the inevitable follow-up.

"What was Cosgrove doing?" he said to my brother, Brian, who is now professor of English in NUI Maynooth. "Playing English cricket!" he said. They were into the nationalist ethos.

In conversation with Catherine Foley