Fashion designer Sorcha O'Raghallaigh
What was your best holiday?I went to Filicudi island off Sicily where my Italian friend Francesca has a summer home. We flew to Sicily and took a long boat journey to the island. It is quite remote and has no cars or street lights. The island has stunning scenery, is quite mountainous and has amazing water. There are big trees everywhere. You get the scent of figs and we ate lots of homemade fig jam. The food was out of this world. We stayed in an old rustic house up a hill where we'd have meals at a table overlooking the ocean. In the evening everyone – about 20 people – would come together for dinner outside. It was the best food ever: I still day-dream about it!
What was your worst holiday?I fell over when on holidays in Paris and fractured my hand. I spent a lot of time in hospital. Travelling back was a bit of a pain. I was by myself with an overweight bag and a fractured arm at the airport with French people shouting at me. I had overspent on my trip and had to throw away dresses and got a bit over-emotional about it! But looking back it wasn't that bad.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I worked in New York for three months and was lucky enough to be there at Halloween where they take it so seriously and everyone dresses up.
So I’d love to go back there for Halloween. I’d then travel to Mexico for the Day of the Dead holiday on November 2nd. I’d love to see how they celebrate death, approach it with a sense of ritual and to see the floral sculptures. They pray by graves all night and light candles everywhere. I’d imagine that seeing it would be stunning.
If you had your pick, who would you take on holiday with you?I'd take my husband – he's really organised and I'm really disorganised like a child – so he gets us there on time!
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Donegal, where my dad is from, is one of the most beautiful places in Ireland. I still have loads of cousins there and it's always good fun and the people are so different. He's from Dunfanaghy but I love anywhere on the coast.
Your recommended holiday reading?I love to catch up with my favourite fashion magazines such as i-D, Dazed Confused or Pop.
Where will you go next?I've no plans because I recently had a great holiday in Berlin.
In conversation with Genevieve Carbery