GENEVIEVE CARBERYspeaks with Peter Sheridan
What's your earliest holiday memory?The photograph below is of me with my grandson Xabi in Spain last year with shells and a crab in the bucket. It's like a replica of a photograph of me and my father in Skerries in 1957, looking into a bucket when I was five, and my father was teaching me how to catch crabs.
What was your worst holiday?I always had idyllic memories of childhood holidays in Blackpool, and I had forever been asking my wife, Sheila, to go. So in 1979 we set off in our tiny red Fiat Bambino on a holiday nightmare. The weather was atrocious, and we couldn't sit on the beach for even one day. The children were young, and the queue for the big dipper ride was a quarter of a mile long. On the way back our car broke down, 300 yards from the ferry. I had to run and get them to hold the boat so I could push the car on. But as I ran my trousers fell down after the button broke.
What was your best holiday?I had always promised to take Sheila to the Grand Canyon, so in 2000 we flew to Los Angeles on our way to visit our son in San Francisco. We spent a couple of nights in the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas and drove to the canyon. We took the road to San Francisco through the desert and diverted off at places such as Hearst Castle, where many Hollywood stars have stayed, and San Juan Bautista, to see the bell tower from Hitchcock's Vertigo.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?I love west Kerry, Ballyferriter and the Blaskets. The Dingle peninsula does something for my soul.
Your recommended holiday reading?I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stonewhen I was on holidays. It blew me off my lounger, and I made everyone else read it. Where will you go next? We hope to go to a Greek island this year.
Peter Sheridan directs The Shawshank Redemptionat the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin from May 5th