How about the English women? Where they different?

Oh Yeah! Boy, were they different. And better. Yes they were amazing and I lost my virginity within days of arrival. It was just extraordinary. The whole attitude to sex was just mind-boggling. You must remember that in those days books were banned here.

Anything remotely above the Mills and Boon level was banned. The News of the World was actually banned. So it was a very different world. In one sense I and other Irish lads dived headfirst in. On the other hand you thought, hmmm… So it was the land of sin and opportunity.

Should Dublin have an elected Mayor and who should it be?

Who it should be I’m not sure but, certainly having an elected mayor with powers to do things is a good idea because basically the decentralisation of democracy is a good thing. It makes people more responsible for their own destiny. It means if they have needs the mayor is much more likely to understand what those needs are. It’s worked in New York and London. I would strongly approve of that idea.

What are your three favourite things about the city?

My three favourite things. The location of the city is beautiful. The mountains and the sea, I think that’s very nice. The disposition of the people, the humour, the temperament of the people which is very nice, very down to earth. Very tolerant, Dublin people. That’s a wonderful thing.

I love certain parts of the city. The Georgian squares and architecture of the city is very nice especially at quiet times in the morning. Stephen’s Green is beautiful. The space itself. Phoenix Park is lovely.

The lovely thing about Dublin is on big match days, Croke Park – all the people up from the Country. There’s no security – there’s no need for security. People behave themselves. It’s innocent – it’s like England used to be really. And much more like European cities on big match days. Sunday’s a lovely day in Dublin. There’s a real sense of joy, excitement and anticipation before the match and afterwards. People go off and have a few pints and it generally all passes off very peacefully and it’s lovely. I love that.

What are your three least favourite things?

Temple bar would be one them and the sort of…. There’s too many pubs in there, too many people getting sick. There’s an air of tension there, of incipient violence that you think might break out at any time. I don’t like that. That’s for sure.

The rip off culture in restaurants, pubs, shops even. That’s a blight on the city. There appears to be no determination to curb it in any way. That’s certainly something that’s deplorable and visible almost in every transaction that you make.

Traffic – but traffic is everywhere. You asked me about the Luas and I like the Luas it looks nice and the idea of trams is nice. Whether it will have any impact on the problem, which is traffic? I’m not sure.