Dangerous Dana's confessional state

So now we know. The innocent face of Dana hides a misspent youth that involved swigging vodka in the bath at the age of 10, running away from school to be a singer, driving without a licence and behaving, as she conceded, like a "habitual criminal".

Yes, it was just another interview on The Gerry Ryan Show yesterday morning. But where the tough tactics of Vincent Browne failed to break Dana in an earlier radio interview, the 2FM presenter demonstrated he had ways of making her talk.

The result was perhaps the most frank interview she has ever done, at least without getting an Our Father and ten Hail Marys at the end. Indeed, it would be no surprise if the Department of Foreign Affairs has started compiling memos about her as a result.

The most shocking revelation concerned a binge the 10-year-old Dana embarked upon after hearing that "vodka would not make you drunk unless you went out in the air". So she locked herself in the bathroom with a bottle, "and I would take a wallop of this vodka and then climb in the bath, open the window, stick my head out and breathe . . . How I didn't die I don't know."

On driving, her law-breaking began after the Eurovision when, on a UNICEF promotion, she drove down O'Connell Street without even a provisional licence. She did it in London, too, she said. And unable to stop (the confession, not the car) she continued: ". . . and I've been an amber gambler ever since, and I then failed my test, and I then did a series with the BBC travelling throughout Ireland, again without a licence."

On her education, she said was taking A-levels in English literature and music when "about three months before the exams I was asked to represent Ireland in the Eurovision". She brought her books to the contest, "but of course I never opened them . . . and that was the end of school".

In increasingly lively exchanges, she swiped at Vincent Browne when discussing an evening tea she'd had in Ardee, Co Louth, the day before.

Gerry Ryan: "If Vincent Browne had been there, would you have poured tea for him?"

Dana: "I might have. It depends where."

She revealed herself to be without vanity when asked if she coloured her hair: "Absolutely not. My sister does it for me."

It should be said that, during rare moments of seriousness, the would-be president pointed out she does now have a full driving licence. She also stressed that, as a result of her fling with the vodka bottle, she always locks away drinks "in a house with children".

Speaking of which, she and her husband went to the airport later in the day to collect the four younger Scallons, who were flying in from the US.