My First. . .

MEMORY: I can remember my mum taking me to school at Bishop Bilsbrow School, in Moss Side, Manchester, on my first day. There was a mixture of excitement and worry and I felt a little bit alone, but also as if a new world was opening up.

HOLIDAY: We used to go to Northern Ireland to visit relatives, as my parents were Irish, although I was born in Manchester. I can remember going on the boat and the sea fascinated me. A devastating thing happened while we were on holiday -- my brother, who was born with hydrocephalus, died at the age of two.

SCHOOLFRIEND: Chris Matthews, who lived in the same street as me. I don't know where he is now.

PET: In my adolescence we had a terrier dog called Chance. He was vicious -- I don't know whether he was psychologically disturbed, but you could be stroking him and the next minute he would turn and bite you. He got out one day and never came back.

JOB: When I was a teenager and still at school I worked in a supermarket stacking shelves on Saturdays. The manageress used to frighten us and I remember once I stacked the wrong food in the wrong place. It was the busiest day and I got into trouble.

CAR: I didn't learn to drive until quite late on and I learned here in Blackburn after I arrived eight years ago. It took me a long time to learn and the instructor retired after teaching me -- I don't know if there was a direct link! I had a Peugeot 309 then and I have I have a 406 now.

HOUSE: Being a priest, you don't own property but my first room at college in Middlesex, while I was studying for the priesthood, was very small -- like a box.

SERMON: At college before I was ordained I had to give a sermon to fellow students -- it was nerve-racking.

PARISH: I went to Sacred Heart for a few weeks and then came to St Anne's. I developed the THOMAS organisation (Those On the Margins Of Society), which helps drug-users and those excluded from society. It has been a very exciting time over the eight years I have been here.