Dubliner Barry Ward plays Jack Clitheroe in the current production of 'The Plough and the Stars' at the Abbey Theatre. He started his acting career at just 14 in Roddy Doyle's highly acclaimed RTÉ/BBC drama 'Family', directed by Michael Winterbottom. He starred alongside Cillian Murphy in 'Sunburn' and the 2001 film 'Watchmen'; Milla Jovovich and Nastassja Kinski in 'The Claim' and James McAvoy in the BBC production of 'Macbeth'. Deirdre Mullins talks to Barry about his travels.
What I love about travelling is just a break from the norm. Escapism I suppose, without the hangover. I'd say new cultures but I've actually never ventured too far off the beaten track and the possibility of ever doing so grows remoter than the locations, not due to a lack of want but hegemony.
When I was a kid Skerries beach was the most exotic destination for us. Every other year we'd head west, mostly to Roscommon and Salthill. Monthly, we visited relatives and mad locals in Louth and Monaghan. We'd spend one week there individually every summer for pondering, I can only assume, and spots of fly-killing.
In winter I'd ask my Da to bring us to the beach but he'd respond, "It's closed", so for years I thought a great big shutter came down along the coast to separate the sand from the sea during the darker months. Ice-creams and funfair rides is all I really remember from Skerries when we did get there. My parents can't swim so we were never allowed near the water. A leisure centre in Salthill with a slide was the closest we ever came to a foreign holiday.
My best travel experience has to be in India. Everyone should go there, but not all at the same time. We spent a few weeks there, I think three, which really only whets the appetite. I look forward to returning one day and heading north. We flew into Mumbai, and travelled south zigzagging our way down as far as Kerala, the Commie State. There wasn't a place I disliked there, and each of our six chosen locations was vastly different.
Morocco is beautiful and threw up a lot of varying places and a return visit is a must. Two weeks is merely scratching the surface.
Sicily is special and we drove motorbikes across the North and visited smaller islands off the north-east. Palermo was the most bustling place we saw there.
I am definitely a city person so NYC, Berlin and London are tops for me.
My worst travel experience was Clyde Bank, Scotland. I did see 'Trainspotting' in the cinema there, though. That was memorable. It wasn't a holiday as such, but a football tournament. I didn't choose to go there.
The world's best city is London. Culturally it is among the wealthiest but it is also affordable. There's tonnes to do and it's ever-changing. It is simply a happening place.
I live in East London, a real hub of cultural activity. Locally there are lots of good galleries that open their doors once monthly for parties. A couple of beautiful parks nearby come in handy for jogging, chilling or bullet-dodging. A bi-monthly cinema event is one of the best things to do. It's called Secret Cinema and is a combination of good theatre, brilliant fancy dress parties and film screenings. Dublin could definitely do with it. It really turns film into the event it should be.
I love NYC, Berlin and Mumbai. I could live in any major city. Can't wait to go to Mexico City and Tokyo.
The strangest things I have experienced while away: well, there are many. New dimensions, attractiveness to jellyfish, mild hypothermia in Ballyconneely, giving lifts to serial killers, Frank Zappa freaks howling at the moon and my girlfriend.
If I won the Lotto I would go on a house hunting holiday. I'd buy apartments in cities mentioned earlier.
The best hotel I ever stayed in was probably the wee back alley one in Marrakech. I love the tiled walls and trippy mosaics you see in Moroccan design and decors.
Chateau Marmont in LA was fun. Very rock 'n' roll. A shabby Manhattan motel was definitely the worst, where the walls didn't even meet the ceilings and there were no rooms; only compartments. Weird. You could hear neighbours breathing, and breeding. If you stood, you could see them too over the wall.
A converted hospital in Eastern Europe wasn't the most pleasant dream-conducive place either. And a Galway hostel I once had the misfortune of staying in should have advertised scabies-for-all.
My favourite place in Ireland is Dublin and the bars therein.
My favourite travel book is Will Self's 'PsychoGeography', a beautiful document of his walk from London to NYC, and a brilliant genre concerned with the effects of environment on the mind. Also Herzog's 'Walking on Ice' is a good travel book, charting his walk from Munich to Paris to see a dying friend.
My next holiday is Corsica for six days in early October. We'll probably rent a car and explore the island. We've a place on the beach rented, and I plan on reading up on the history of the place once there. Napoleon was born there. It was Italian, now French, though I believe there are vocal separatists there for some time. Apparently it also inspired Heller's 'Catch-22'. I'll tell you when I get back.
I always bring back a cold sore. No, truthfully, one or two second-hand books. Lame, but true.
The craziest thing I have done on holiday stays on holiday.
I never go travelling without my lovely lady Laura.
Barry Ward stars in the Abbey Theatre production of 'The Plough and the Stars' by Sean O'Casey, directed by Wayne Jordan, on the Abbey stage, until Saturday, 25 September 2010.
