What's your earliest holiday memory?We didn't have a lot of money but I remember as kids piling into a truck and going to Atlantic City. We'd take the side roads to avoid the tolls. We didn't know we were poor as we were like every other kid on the block. We'd stop on the road to pick peaches and tomatoes, it was so much fun.
What was your worst holiday?I was trying to reunite with an ex-boyfriend so I paid for a first-class trip from London to Rio. But when we got into the hotel suite we had a big row. So I packed my things and took the next flight back to London. It was a waste of money to find out that the relationship was over.
What was your best holiday?The best holidays I have had were when I was with a boyfriend in the first stage of love, in the south of France, Morocco, Greece and Cyprus, for the sun, sex, sand and sangria.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?Two places I have never been to are Egypt and Venice – they're the type of places you need to share with someone. I want to have someone sing to me on a gondola in Venice. I've been told I was an Egyptian goddess in a past life so I want to find out where I was buried.
Who would you bring on holiday with you?I'd pick the love of my life.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?I toured Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s when I was with the Three Degrees, all over the country including Killarney and Cork. I kissed the Blarney stone and I learned to drink here. People are so friendly .
But it’s nice that there is no war now. Back then, a priest talked me into performing for free at a high-risk prison in Northern Ireland. There was a riot the day before we went over watching us. I was flirting with one guy and told him to give me a call when he got out; it turned out he was in prison for murdering his family!
Your recommended holiday reading?At the moment I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattooby Stieg Larsson.
Where will you go to next?I'll have a week's break between this show and panto rehearsals, so I'll probably go back to my home in Majorca and yell at the cat!
- Former Three Degrees member Sheila Ferguson is starring in Fame: The Musical, at the Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin and is touring to Castlebar, Belfast, Cork, Derry, Killarney, Galway and Wexford. famethemusical.ie
- In conversation with Genevieve Carbery