GENEVIEVE CARBERYspeaks to Pat Shortt about his holiday memories...
What's your earliest holiday memory?As kid in a family of 12 children, we didn't really go on holidays but on day excursions. Everyone would squash into the car, with some in the boot, and we would go off to the beach for a day. The first real holiday I remember was when there were five or six of us at home. We took a caravan down to Clare and had a tent, too. But the tent went missing. We discovered that it had taken off over the cliffs.
What was your worst holiday?About six years ago, when one of my children was six months old, I went with my wife and kids to Italy. We booked two weeks in what looked like a fantastic villa on a farm in rural Tuscany. It sounded perfect. But when we landed we found that the farm was a piggery. Every evening there were a huge amount of flies in the pool, and the smell was unbearable. The highlight of the miserable week was a touring cinema that set up in the village piazza. We left after a week and went up the coast.
What was your best holiday?Nearly every holiday at the moment is fantastic, as the kids are getting older. We can sit around together and have a bite to eat and they aren't crawling under the table. I'm really starting to enjoy our breaks away. Last year we went to Lanzarote. A friend of mine happened to rent a cottage beside us. Our kids were the same age, and it was fantastic, as they were playing together, and it gave us lots of time to ourselves.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I'd love to go to Zambia again. I went there when I did a show with Jon in Lusaka. We spent two weeks in Livingston, did white-water rafting and went to Luangwa Valley national park. The weather, the light and the animals were amazing, and we were very relaxed but doing something constantly. It was something very different, riding along in the back of jeeps through the jungle. It was one of the most amazing trips of my life.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?Obviously my wife – but otherwise David Norris. He is a gas man, he is intelligent and no matter where you go he would have inside knowledge. He would be great company at the dinner table with a glass of good wine.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?I have a holiday home in west Cork, just outside Kinsale, where we love going every year. There is a great beach nearby. I go there to write, and I love it more in winter, when it's quiet. I have been going there for about 11 years and know everyone in the area, so it's a home away from home.
Your recommended holiday reading?What I read is quite varied, and I read a lot for work reasons. But Sebastian Barry's books are amazing.
Where will you go to next?I am planning to go to the south of France with my family for a couple of weeks this summer.
Pat Shortt is an actor and comedian