My Holidays

Conor Faughnan , public-affairs manager of AA Ireland, talks about his holidays

Conor Faughnan, public-affairs manager of AA Ireland, talks about his holidays

What's your earliest holiday memory?It would have been August 1977, when I was eight. I remember bits of earlier holidays, but I distinctly remember being in the old Atlantic Hotel in Inniscrone, Co Sligo - people will remember Tom's Top Ten. It was there until a few years ago. The adults were clustered at the bar, shocked by the news that Elvis had died.

Your best holiday?There have been a few. The long hot summer of 1995 in Sligo was one, Lake Garda was another. But I'd have to single out Catalonia, in Spain, in 2006.

Your worst holiday?I had a package to Salou one year, and I won't be rushing back. We had two families together, so we had great fun, but the whole coast was an overcrowded, overdeveloped, excessively tattooed and football-jerseyed strip laden with testosterone. Incidentally, the worst meal in human history was served to me there. It was allegedly lasagne. Ughh!

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Your dream holiday?I watched Stephen Fry in America recently, where he trekked through every state in the US being witty. That's the holiday for me. Might take me a full year.

Your recommended holiday reading?I read huge amounts on holiday. I've been christened l'homme du livre at a local bar on the French-Spanish border. I enjoyed Robert Fisk's book on the history of western intervention in the Middle East (grim but fascinating), and on I lighter note I enjoy historical fiction - Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden.

What's your favourite place in Ireland?Grafton Street, in Dublin, at Christmas; Killala Bay, in Co Mayo, for a June sunset. It's a gorgeous place when the sky is blue.

If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?No contest: the winner by miles is my wife, Lorraine. We'll travel more together as the kids get bigger.

Your next holiday?New York for a citybreak in February. I feel like the only person in Ireland who's never been there, so I'm really looking forward to it.

• In conversation with Catherine Foley

• Conor Faughnan is public-affairs manager of AA Ireland