Fiona Rossin conversation with
GENEVIEVE CARBERY
What’s your earliest holiday memory?
My sister and I being thrown out of the car by my mother for fighting, somewhere near Letterfrack, aged seven. I remember the Renault 4 disappearing around the corner with us completely shocked that my mother had followed through. It worked as she never had to do it again!
What was your worst holiday?
The only time I left somewhere mid-holiday was one time in Connemara. We had just moved back from California into our newly-renovated house. The next day we went away to a rented cottage which was an awful house with damp down the walls. I couldn’t believe we had left our beautiful house to stay in that hell hole with three small kids. We were meant to spend one week there and another in west Cork. Instead, we left early and arrived to the beautiful Mediterranean climate of west Cork. That holiday began my love of the area.
What was your best holiday?
A ski trip to Hafjell, north of Lillehammer, in Norway last February. If Carlsberg did ski holidays it would be here – it was utterly amazing and completely uncrowded. I had planned not to ski because I injured my knee the previous time and thought I couldn’t ski again. But one day I decided to try a completely empty slope and my knees held up. It was my skiing rebirth and I skied for the rest of the holiday.
The conditions were magnificent and going through the snowy trees on a button lift with no sound is a spiritual experience.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?
My key factor is not to have to travel, so teleportation would be my dream. I would begin skiing in Norway and then be transported in a millisecond to a beach in Thailand. I don’t enjoy travelling because of the hanging around and delays and I am also a nervous passenger.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?
Excluding my family (I would always want to go with them), I would pick my great grandmother, granny Thorpe, whom I never met. I am fascinated by her story, so I would love to go on holiday with her to hear about it. She married many times, lived in Dublin, London and Paris, entertained artists and dispatched many teenage children to the emigrant ship. She was a very interesting woman and very different to her peers.
What’s your favourite place in Ireland?
Heir Island off the coast of Baltimore, Co Cork. It has magnificent scenery and has a safe sandy beach. I like anywhere around Baltimore where we have a house.
Your recommended holiday reading?
On holiday I like having the time to be gripped by a good thriller for the day. But for my next holiday I am stockpiling James Joyce. I need to refamiliarise myself with all of his works because he is out of copyright next year, so there will be an explosion of interest. We can also lift the lockdown on material we hold at the library.
Where will you go to next?
Baltimore this summer. I have travelled and lived all over the world, so for me there is great joy in just getting into my car and travelling to my own home.
Fiona Ross is Director of the National Library of Ireland