Journalist Conor Pope has worked as acting editor of Ireland.com for several years now. However, he is probably best known for his Pricewatch column in the Irish Times and his regular slot on Today FM's Ray D'Arcy Show.

Born in Galway, Conor moved to Cork at the age of six and returned to Galway at 13, where he began first year at St Mary's. While he looked forward to the return, it wasn't as easy as he anticipated.

"I had a terrible Cork accent; I felt I was coming home, but I was a pariah in St Mary's, where I had started first year. I didn't like it there at all. Looking back, it was half me and half the teachers, but I wasn't happy there."

Conor confesses that he was a "terrible student", but always had an interest in English. It was not until he changed English teachers in sixth year that his interest in writing really took off.

"I had a different English teacher and she was really, really helpful. She thought I was great and she always gave me really high marks in my essays; she gave me confidence. Her name was Mary Cox; she was fantastic."

Although he didn't play sport as a teenager "because it wasn't cool," the young Conor Pope was not short of extra-curricular activities, playing in a band from the age of 16.

"We had a band from when I was 16. The first place we played was Sally Longs. We called ourselves The Avante Gardes and thought we were really cool, playing Sally Longs in black sunglasses!"

Conor's leanings towards English lead him to UCG, where he studied English and Philosophy and enjoyed college life to the full. And his musical experiences continued, with a band called The Hunting Toadstools, which had some degree of success.

"We sent demo tapes and got them played on Dave Fanning, we were an indie band before indie was the thing; we were really just a typical college band."

On the other side of the coin, he was also a founding member of the UCG Bridge Club.

"Clubs and Societies could host events… if the band wanted to play the Aula, they had to do it under the auspices of a society. So we set up the Bridge Club. It was a rock 'n roll bridge club! We played bridge for money, although I was never very good. I did win a tray once in the Galway Bridge Club. It was a horribly flowery thing but I gave it to my mother, I think she liked it."

Although his time at secondary school may not have been all he'd hoped for, Conor has great memories of UCG.

"I loved college. I was a terrible student but I loved the freedom and the social scene. The facilities were dreadful though. I remember sitting in the basement, 500 of us cheek-by-jowl, eating our lunch because there were no facilities. Now I feel like an ould fella when I go back there, looking at all the facilities and saying it wasn't like that in my day!

"I always felt very privileged to be going to UCG. It was definitely the coolest university in the country, and that really means something when you're 19 or 20!"

After university, Conor was "amazed to find there were no jobs for philosophers in the West of Ireland", and did a six-month FÁS course in computer programming.