John is the quiet one of the family. While everyone else is diving headlong into conversations, John sits and listens.

He's extremely capable, but he doesn't study, his mother says.

Nonetheless, he's in the top five in his class in maths. "I do what I have to do," he says, confiding that he'd liked to be an electrical engineer.

Today, with his Junior Cert exams looming, he's not saying much, but last week when a plumber came to the house to do a job, John was to be found in animated conversation, delving into the intricacies of plumbing. He's good with his hands, too. Theresa points proudly to the sturdy wooden chair in the yard. Crafted by the 15-year-old, it's doing sterling work, holding a plant.

His dad says that he thinks John works harder than he lets on. He can't work in silence though - rock music, he admits, helps him concentrate. All the Sheekeys have learned to pay the keyboard, but John has moved over to guitar, which he has taught himself to play.