Bressie: I didn’t cope well as a teenager and that carried throughout my whole life

'My greatest quality is that I’m very good in a crisis. The problem is some people can take that for granted'

Bressie: 'I’ve had some really difficult moments in my career and I’ve been able to respond well to them'

I moved to Israel when I was 13; my dad was there for two years with the UN so I got a rude awakening to life outside Mullingar. It changed how I viewed the world. 13-year-olds really don’t care about politics but I became very curious. I didn’t cope well as a teenager and that carried throughout my whole life. I think it was to do with living in Israel. I didn’t feel safe.

My earliest memory was going to school for the first time. I was very close to my mother and it was the first indication that I didn’t get to have everything my own way.