At 68, Senator David Norris' has just published his autobiography A Kick Against the Pricks. Olaf Tyaransen caught up with the pioneering campaigner for gay rights and acclaimed Joycean scholar, to discuss the book and the events of what have been an eventful life so far.

He opens up to Olaf about his hurt and disappointment over the fact that Ezra - the Israeli human rights activist that he had a loving relationship with - gave revealing interviews to the Irish media at the height of his presidential campaign: "He should have had the imagination to see I was in trouble and that he could help me by keeping silent. But he didn't. Then it happened again and again, and i said, 'I cannot deal with this."

In a deeply personal and revealing interview, Senator Norris also speaks about his sexual encounters as a young gay man, his battles with journalists and the paparazzi, and reveals how he still has sleepless nights after what was undoubtedly the dirtiest and hardest fought presidential campaign the country has ever witnessed: "I haven't had a full night of unbroken sleep in a year. Every night at precisely 4am - I don't know why, I don't know what happened at 4am! - I wake bathed in perspiration with the sheets soaking."

Read the full interview in the new issue of Hot Press, available in shops today.