I grew up in Dundalk and my school - Dundalk CBS - was literally just around the corner. I was happy at school and I've never agreed with the charges of brutality that have been laid against the Christian Brothers. They were certainly strict, but no more than the rest of society.

It was a relatively small school - there were just over 200 of us - and every class was mixed ability. I never got any feeling that any of the boys were treated unfairly. We were blessed with excellent teachers. Both the Brothers and the lay teachers were very conscientious and I'm very much in their debt. Mr Morgan, Mr McNally and Felix McQuillan were all wonderful teachers.

I was a great soccer fan and that was frowned upon by the Brothers. We were taught through Irish and during my time in school we moved from the old Gaelic script to the Roman script. I remember being challenged by a Brother when I continued to use the old script. "Don't you realise that Roman script is used all around the world?" he asked. "Yes, Brother," I replied, "and so is soccer." For that I spent the rest of the afternoon standing outside the classroom door.

I don't think I had any favourite subjects. I did enjoy maths though - but not because I found it easy. I worked hard and was a dedicated student. I knew that in our system you had to perform well in all the subjects rather than in one or two.

I was ambitious and knew from an early stage that I wanted to go to college. At that time not many students took the higher education route. But it was easy to be ambitious in my family. My parents provided a very supportive environment. School was viewed as being important and there were always plenty of books in the house. The greatest problem for people from disadvantaged backgrounds is that their home environments are not conducive to study.

In 1957 the Russians launched Sputnik into space. I was one of those people who was captivated by science, technology and space and, as a result, I decided to study chemistry at UCG. There was a history of Dundalk CBS boys going to UCG at that time - past pupils had done well there and, of course, we had been taught through Irish.

Although not prosperous, Dundalk was doing well economically in the Fifties. When I went to UCG in 1960, I felt I was going to a city which was much less developed. However, the college with 1,000 students appeared huge to me - yet today DCU has an enrolment of 5,000 and is considered small.

I still remember the intimacy of UCG. On the campus we mixed with undergraduates from all disciplines including arts, science, medicine and engineering. At college I had no idea that I would become an academic. I did a Ph D at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and considered going into industry. I was offered jobs but opted to pursue my interest in lasers in Michigan State University, where I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship. I found I enjoyed academia and decided to stay with it.

Dr Danny O'Hare is president of DCU. He was in conversation with Yvonne Healy.