My holidays

Actor Don Wycherley speaks with GENIVIEVE CARBERY

What’s your earliest holiday memory?

My mother was a widow, so when she went for an operation I remember going for two weeks to my uncle’s farm outside Cork city. I stayed in a mobile home with my brothers at the back of the house. We were up every morning for milking and hay-baling and would play cards in the evening. The mobile was a stone’s throw from the house, but we felt huge freedom like we were travelling the world.

What was your worst holiday?

I haven’t really had a disaster where I’ve lost everything. I’ve gone to places on holiday with the kids with noisy neighbours and remember thinking, “How did we book this place?”. But I generally manage to extricate myself from it without too much hubbub.

What was your best holiday?

I spent three weeks in Spain three years ago and I never enjoyed a holiday as much. A three-week holiday rarely happens, but I was in between two jobs. It took almost a week and a half to relax and de-stress. By the third week, I was practically a native!

We got into the routine of a barbecue in the evening, reading by the pool, getting a swim in after a lazy lunch at some place along Estepona and falling into the sea. The odd time I get to a nice location for work such as Maryland with TG4 this year. But for me a holiday is with all the kids – trudging up the beach with bags and lilos and setting up the windcheater!

If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?

We were very fortunate that No Frontiers sent us to Kenya. It was pretty much a dream holiday and something the kids will treasure forever. I’d like to do the Machu Picchu trail – but it’s not really a big family holiday. Maybe when my eldest is older he will come or maybe I’d take my daughter to Rome. A trip to Disneyworld in Florida would break the budget – with two teenagers and one eight year old it would be a great time to go.

If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?

I’d bring my family, that’s what it’s all about for me.

What’s your favourite place in Ireland?

Being from west Cork I have a strong attraction to Skibbereen and Kerry. I have a gra for the Kerry Gaeltacht and speaking a cúpla focail. I did The Running Mate series for TG4 down there. If I could do my work from there I would move.

Your recommended holiday reading? The last one I read was We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and I’m currently reading American Rust by Philipp Meyer. I usually take two books on holiday and get through one.

Where will you go to next?

I will eat my shoe if I don’t get somewhere outside Ireland where it’s not raining next year.

Actor Don Wycherley can be seen in Boss Grady’s Boys by Sebastian Barry which is on at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, until September 11th