My early years were spent at Rathgar National School, Dublin. When I was 12, I moved to St Patrick's Cathedral School, where my cousin Eric Sweeney was the musical director. When I started - and it's going back many years - girls had only begun attending the school. I loved it. The hormones were just beginning to kick in and it was great seeing the boys every day.

Paul Hewson, who later became Bono, was in my class before he left to go to Mount Temple. I remember him as a very quiet sort of guy - he wasn't a bit wild. I didn't realise it at the time, but I am slightly dyslexic and I found reading difficult. Even now, I panic before I go to an audition. One good thing came out of it, though: it got my brain working and I've got a great memory as a result. I can now photograph a whole page in my head and remember it.

I remember myself as being rather wild at school. My older sister Linda was there and she was a very sensible girl and became a prefect. I was delighted, though, when I met my former maths teacher, Brian Weir, who later became headmaster, at a past-pupils' reunion, two weeks ago. He told me he didn't think I was a bit wild!

I had no thoughts of a career on the stage when I was at school. I remember an end-of-term concert, when I sang the Love Story theme Where Do I Begin? I made a pig's ear of it and ran off the stage laughing my head off. Nobody was a bit pleased.

During the school holidays, Linda and I had jobs in a local factory in Old Tallaght, making plastic rosary beads and spoons. We spent our summer holidays in a cottage in Skerries, which was wonderful.

I left school quite early and did and assortment of jobs. I even spent some time working as a housekeeper in the London Tara Hotel. It wasn't until I joined a Japanese company, Fujitsu, that I became involved with the stage. Just for fun and something to do, I entered the John Players Tops of the Towns competition. I learned all the dance steps and was put in the back row. The following year, they put me in a comedy in which I suddenly realised that you have to have people laughing with you, rather than at you. A year later, I did a solo act. I dressed up as a Bewley's waitress, complete with wig and glasses, and recited Percy French's Ach, I Dunno, which won me an award for most promising entertainer. It was as a result of this, that I met Tom Roche and Martin Higgins, who write my material. Tom died last year after a short illness and he's sadly missed.

My real breakthrough came when I came second in a Clontarf Castle talent competition and Gay Byrne invited me on to the Late Late Show

June Rodgers, who is playing Millie Ennium in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, was in conversation with Yvonne Healy.