The woman behind the counter was talking to another customer; smiling and nodding in his direction as he stood by the magazine rack. He knew they were talking about him.

When he approached he could hear her whispering excitedly. "It is him, I know it's him it's Paul Mc Grath."

Sitting in The Gresham Hotel, Dublin as he recounts this tale, Sharkey is clearly amused. "Isn't that lovely?" he adds in a Donegal accent which seems at odds with his skin colour.

And that's where the joke stems from. Even he can appreciate that up until quite recently there were only a handful of black men with Irish accents in Ireland; Paul Mc Grath being one and Sharkey another.

Currently one of the most sought-after painters in the country, Sharkey's pictures . . . vivid splashes of oil on canvas . . .seem simplistic but they've been marketed well and described as "bankable" by those in the art world.

They sell for big bucks . . . starting at 800, one recently sold for 16, 000. He has exhibited in numerous venues around the world including London, New York, and Ibiza. At a recent show in California, all 12 paintings were sold before it even opened.

He can name Charles Saatchi, Bob Geldof and Sinead O'Connor among his collectors.

It's not bad going for someone who only began making a living from painting less than 10 years ago. Although he says he's been painting all his life . . . a life full of highs and lows.

Those of a certain age will remember Kevin Sharkey as the co-presenter of Mega-Mix, a pop-music television programme in the '80s. He was the black guy from Killybegs, which back then was a novelty in itself. Although the colour of his skin has helped his media career in that it helped him to stand out from the crowd, it also brought him much hardship as a child growing up in Donegal. "I didn't know I was black until I was 11, " he says. "And when I did find out I had nobody to identify with; I just knew I was different."

In person Sharkey is charming. He's very open and he wears his heart on his sleeve, which lends him an air of vulnerability and makes him an easy interviewee. Yet there's a determined streak about the former television presenter, possibly because of his troubled background, which since he entered the public eye he has made no attempt to hide.

Born to a Dublin woman who put him up for adoption when he was a baby, Sharkey was fostered by a family in Donegal. A lack of identity growing up was, however, the least of his worries. At 12 years old he was returned to care and he spent the following four years in a state institution. There he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, which left lasting scars and started a spiral of depression and subsequent substance abuse.

Once he was released from care, Sharkey did a number of jobs . . . he was a fisherman, a chef and a taxi man in London.

He dabbled with alcohol and drugs during that time and at one stage, at a particularly low point, he turned to prostitution.

Even after he had pulled himself together and began a successful career as a presenter, his life was marred by tragedy.

His birth mother, who sought him out eight year ago after he appeared on the Late Late Show, didn't want to have a relationship with him. "That was very difficult for me to accept, " he admits. "Because as a child, you keep a small window of your heart open about your birth mother, despite the fact that she abandoned you. Meeting her was strange . . . slightly surreal because she has two sons by her husband. For her, it was very difficult and she asked me then not to contact her again. It was one of the most painful experiences I've ever been through."

Later, his sister Noelle from his adopted family committed suicide and that was one of his reasons for his appearing on RTE reality TV show Celebrity Farm. He hoped to raise money for Aware, a charity which helps people with depression, an illness from which Noelle had suffered. The experience, however, back-fired when he admitted to smoking a joint on the farm. Now he says he would never do reality television again.

"You agree to expose yourself totally and of course the people making it have an agenda and you end up feeling bruised by the whole experience."

Sharkey continues to court controversy. Out of the blue last year, he again made newspaper headlines when his home in Donegal was raided by gardai looking for drugs. A fact he still seems baffled by. "I don't understand why there were eight of them?" he laughs. "I mean, I'm not a good drinker and years ago I experimented with Class A drugs, but they didn't suit me, so I opt to smoke a wee joint every now and then instead. But that's it as far as drugs are concerned. I handed over the grass when the gardai arrived but I was thinking, 'Why are there eight of you for a wee bit of grass?'" As a result of the raid, Sharkey became depressed and had trouble sleeping. "I haven't smoked since, " he says. "But the feeling of having people come into my house and rummage around amongst my things had a lasting affect. I just wanted to get out of there."

He decided to leave Donegal and move to Ibiza, where he spent the best part of a year. "I've been going to Ibiza on holidays since I was 18. It was the first place I thought of going when I made the decision to leave Donegal. The public perception of Ibiza is very different to the reality of living there. The old town of Ibiza is one of the most magical places in the world, " he says. "In the winter it's quiet and I love the peace and tranquillity of it. I have five dogs that I take for a long walk on the beach early in the morning, then I come back and do a bit of painting; it's a lovely lifestyle."

Part of his reason for moving was his break-up with his long term partner Ade . . . who, like Sharkey, is also half black and who runs the artist's business. The couple met 10 years ago and fell in love, even though Sharkey had never had a male partner.

When they split up, Sharkey met a Spanish girl called Marionella in Ibiza and began a relationship with her, but it didn't last. "Ade and I split for a few months but it was long enough for me to realise that he was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me, " he says, adding that it's taken him until now to come to terms with his sexuality. "Growing up, I loved girls. But the abuse I suffered as a young man made me very confused for years afterwards. To be honest, I didn't know if I was gay or straight and looking back now I realise that all the time I just wanted to be loved."

He says that being homosexual can be a tough in modern society. "With all the negativity that goes with being homosexual, I used to think about it and realise it wasn't something I wanted for myself or anyone else."

He adds, however, that these days he is very sure about he wants and who he is. "Ade and I had been together for 10 years and when we split up I missed the security of being loved, of having someone to watch my back. What's more, Ade does all my business for me and I was lost without him. It's funny; suddenly the labels don't seem to matter anymore. I fell in love with a person, not a gender, and that's all that counts."

So is he gay? "I still don't feel gay, " he says. "At the age of 46, I've realised that my sexuality would be better described as bi-sexual. In the past, I've been wary of labelling myself as such because I always felt that the words 'bi-sexual' were a way of sitting on the fence. I used to think I had to be one or the other but now I realise I don't, because life isn't as definite as that.

"At the same time I'll always find women attractive and I get on very well with them, but I didn't want to commit to any women until I knew for certain that I wasn't going to go off with someone else, let alone anyone of another sex."

Now that he is back with Ade, Sharkey would like to get married and has considered having a ceremony in a foreign country. "I was going to get married in Spain and then I thought 'hold on a second, why should I have to do it there?' I want to get married in my own country and I'm prepared to wait for the law to change in Ireland. When it does happen, it will be a very quiet affair."

For the moment, he's concentrating on the opening of his gallery on Francis Street in Dublin which will feature all his own work. It's a clever way of cutting out the gallery fees, which can often exceed 50% of the cost of a painting, and it shows Sharkey's keen business sense.

He says that his painting has evolved and now reflects his happy state of mind. "These days, the colours are more vibrant. Of course the paintings reflect my emotions." At the same time, he is wary of analysing his art too much. "One of the problems with art is that it can intellectualised and I don't like to do that. I'm very much an emotional artist; I paint how if feel and it's very rewarding when people respond to that."

He may have had his ups and downs in the past but these days life is good. "I'm very lucky you know, " he smiles. "I have a fantastic lifestyle; the kind I once dreamed of as a kid. I have a job that is totally fulfilling and which continues to stimulate me, I have a lovely house in Spain and another in Mayo and I have a good man by my side. What's more, it's nice to get recognised as a painter when I'm relatively young. I mean, what's the point when all your teeth are falling out?"