My Holidaystalks to designer, Jen Kelly
What's your earliest holiday memory?It's the smell of fresh sheets in Fahan, Co Donegal. It was where my family were all packed off to on July 1st every year, to the shores of Lough Swilly, on the Inishowen Peninsula. There would be 12 to 14 kids, all my cousins. Everybody in the family could come and stay. I don't think I slept in the same bed any night. It was wherever you fitted. We had three mothers - two aunts and my mother - minding us.
What was your worst holiday?Anywhere it rains is always the worst. I can remember being in Morocco when the waves were the size of the house. I felt we were going to be taken over by the waves. That was January two years ago. Another time, in Thailand, it rained heavily and I had some really good Gucci shoes. I had to run in my bare feet, because I didn't want to ruin the shoes. I could feel frogs squelching under my feet, and I was sure I was going to step on a snake.
Your best holiday?It's at my home in Morrocco with family and friends about two years ago. The house is three little fishing houses that we converted into one. We have a pool on the roof. It's just like Fahan, only up a notch. If you sit there and watch the stars, that is heaven. Can you believe it's the same ocean as in Donegal? No, the water is still freezing because it's tidal.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?It would be to go to the Gold Coast in Australia to see all my friends who have emigrated and gone to work there on Mardi Gras.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday?I'd bring all my family. We went to Walt Disney World in Florida before the rains in March and April two years ago. There are six of us brothers and sisters, and we brought all the children. We are planning it next summer again.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Anywhere in Kerry or the Beach Hotel in Downings, in Co Donegal. I have such fond memories of Kerry. The Beach Hotel has recently been refurbished, and it has the best fish restaurant in the country at reasonable prices. It's just wonderful, and it's right on the ocean in Sheephaven Bay, on the Inishowen Peninsula.
What holiday reading would you recommend?I'm quite a rugby fan, and Trevor Brennan's book, Heart and Soul, made me laugh and made me cry. I recently read Nell McCafferty's book Nell, and I really enjoyed that, too.
Where to next?Winter in Morocco, then to Lake Como, in Italy. We buy all our fabrics there, and we stay on the lake. It's wonderful to wake up and smell that crisp mountain air, take a nice boat ride out on to the lake or take a train right around the mountains to Lugano, in Switzerland. It's another world. You just think you are on the Orient Express.