Gavan Reilly: I often don’t take myself seriously enough

I’m genuinely surprised that so many people are so cynical about the motivations of those in public life

Gavan Reilly: I represented Ireland at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Tokyo in 2003, which gave me license to say I am (technically) an Olympian, as long as you overlook my poor performance and the fact it was maths. Picture: @gavreilly / Twitter

I grew up just outside Rathmolyon — a small village halfway between Enfield and Trim in County Meath. My dad, Dom, is a plumber and my mother, Mary, a public servant. My brother Dave was born when I was five. It was a quiet but happy childhood. We never seemed to want for anything — and we always had great holidays. Dad often worked six-day weeks, and Mum would often put in overtime hours. We’d be minded after school by my mother’s parents who only lived a few doors down. Now I live in Knocklyon with my wife, Ciara, and our daughters Doireann, 2, and Bláthnaid, 7 months, and I too find myself working six-day weeks to try and give the family as much comfort as I can. It’s funny how the circle goes!

My earliest memory is quite indistinct, but I do remember there being lots of soccer on the telly in the summer when I was three, in what I later figured out was Italia ’90. I also vividly remember being on stage in a holiday resort in Majorca having a leather jacket put on me so that I could perform my party piece, which was ‘Hey Mona’ by Craig McLachlan, better remembered as playing Henry Ramsay in Neighbours. I can confidently say I did not know the words to the song. And I can only have been four years old. I suppose the act of being handed a microphone, and told to communicate things I did not fully understand, was useful training for my later life...