My holidays

Niall O'Dowd in conversation with GENEVIEVE CARBERY

What's your earliest holiday memory?My parents packing us all into a taxi in Thurles, Co Tipperary, and driving to Tramore when I was about five or six . The weekend at the seaside was an incredible treat and it felt like a magical thing as my father didn't drive.

What was your worst holiday?When I went to Hawaii I was very disappointed. The famous Waikiki beach was overcrowded and overbuilt, and there were cigarette butts in the sand. My idea of Hawaii was as a remote magical little island, but it was very commercialised and felt more like Butlins.

What was your best holiday?I absolutely fell in love with Australia during my honeymoon in 1996. I thought Sydney was the most gorgeous place with a great outdoor lifestyle. We went to Alice Springs and the outback, which was just amazing. We had a marvellous night to remember in the deep outback, having dinner while looking up at the southern stars in the blackest, darkest sky I have ever seen.

If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I take the same holiday every year and it's my dream holiday. I go to the Saratoga racetrack in upstate New York. I love horse racing, but I've only won there once! It's a beautiful historical area and the village is untouched and as it was in the 19th century. My wife shops and my daughter goes to summer schools.

If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?I'd love to have gone on vacation with Ted Kennedy. He was an amazing guy to listen to and I knew him very well. But I never really got a chance to talk to him about what it was like in the 1960s, growing up with JFK and that whole magical era. I'd love to have spent more time with him. He was a fantastic storyteller and was living, breathing history, and spoke of his brothers as if they were ordinary people.

What's your favourite place in Ireland?West Kerry. I bought a house there many years ago and I go back every year for at least a week over Easter. It's where my father is from, so it has a special link for me and all of my family. Ballydavid is right on the Atlantic, so in good weather it's the most beautiful place on earth, and in bad weather it's the most depressing!

Your recommended holiday reading?I love reading biographies. I've just finished reading Ted Kennedy's autobiography True Compass. It's a magnificent book.

Where will you go to next?I had one wonderful visit to Calcutta, India, to work with Goal a few years ago. I'd love to go back to India as it has an amazing culture and the people have nothing and yet seem so happy. It makes you rethink happiness and how to achieve it.

Niall O'Dowd is editor of the Irish Voicenewspaper. His autobiography An Irish Voiceis published by O'Brien Press, €12.99