Personal finances are like people’s personal health, crucial and tragic to the sufferer but tedious to the listener.

And I think my sexuality was heavily repressed by the church, by the, you know, the design of the mortal sins.

Um, what I found though about the Christian Brothers is this: that they were certainly muscular.

I thought I'd definitely be a writer, whatever I did.

You know, so I was a weird eccentric kid but I did believe in the power of the word and of the word being made flesh I suppose, which again I suppose came from my temperament as well as my upbringing.

So I was very close to ordination. I was delighted to be ordained a deacon, which is the last step between, before becoming a priest. But then it all fell apart.

And I definitely wanted to be a writer, but I felt a duty now, having used up those educational resources, I felt a duty to the church and my parents to become a priest.