My primary school was Gowran National School, a nice small country school in my home town in Co Kilkenny. I don't remember a whole lot about the classes but, really, it was where the hurling started. It was very big in the school at the time.

I think my first match with the school was when I was eight in an under-10s match when I was in second class. I always remember getting great support from two particular teachers, John Knox and Mick O'Laoire, who were both very big into the hurling.

I went on to St Kieran's College for secondary. It's a large all-boys school in the town in Kilkenny and it is very hurling-orientated. A lot of us would have gone there just for the hurling and, if I was to be honest, I think I could say I went for the hurling first and the education second. Although hurling was, and still is, an incredibly popular sport in Kieran's there were a lot of great hurling teachers who were very good academic teachers at the same time.

I always remember one of our trainers, Seamus Knox, who would give me grinds in maths after training. I was pretty good at maths, anyway, but he would bring me away for extra help to develop that. He would have done all that in his spare time - it didn't cost me anything. So, as well as having the hurling interest, they really had an education interest.

I was still in school when I joined the senior panel. I was 17 then, just going into fifth year I think. I was the youngest person on the team at that time. I would always have been on older boy's teams right through school. Our parish was very small, so if you were under-14 you would still end up playing under-18. All of us of that generation would have been playing on older teams.

Myself, Charlie Carter and Pat O'Neill would have all grown up together and gone to the same primary, and then on to Kieran's, together. There was a fair amount of hurling talent in the school at the time, whatever about the brain talent!

I liked school in a lot of ways but I'd imagine you have a better appreciation of school when you're gone than when you're there. I probably spent too much time thinking that I'd rather be out in a job making money.

I didn't really appreciate education while I was there, but I'm glad that I did stay on until the Leaving Cert. But that's as far as I went. I can't recall exactly what I got in the Leaving but I know it was as good as, and maybe even better than I expected - so I was very happy with it.

When I was doing my Leaving I was playing under-21, junior and senior hurling with Kilkenny. I was also playing handball at a high level, so sport did take up a tremendous amount of my time. But I got through it nonetheless.

I suppose it might have interfered with my schoolwork but I'd say my schoolwork would have always been secondary to sports interests anyway.

I travelled to America a few times when still in school to play in the US Handball Association junior championships. I was never torn between the hurling and the handball though, because the hurling was always my number one choice.

On a few trips to America I was asked if I would like to go to school there on a handball scholarship, but as handball wasn't my main sport I turned them down - although I always put my being a better hurler down to having played handball. Hurling was always foremost in my mind all along. In Kilkenny you have a good chance of making the senior team when you make under-age teams.

I was very rarely in trouble in school, thank God. But I can remember I used to suffer with tonsilitis a lot when I was young, and I had a bad dose at one time when we were due to play a Leinster final.

I was out of school three days beforehand but they rang me to play in the match. I didn't let the tonsils stop me from playing. As a result I was out of school for two weeks afterward, but we won the Leinster final anyway and sure that was the main thing!

In conversation with Olivia Kelly