‘Again mum, do it again!’ Our wild Atlantic wander back to childhood holidays

Many of us are heading overseas this summer, but here’s the story of a family that stayed home, recapturing the spirit of childhood holidays on the west coast

Poulnabrone Dolmen in the Burren, Co Clare. Picture: Tourism Ireland

Sheilagh Foley

I grew up in an Ireland where staycations were not a cool, on-trend, eco-friendly, Covid-compliant experiment. They were your summer holidays.

We piled into cars, taking a reprieve from sibling punches to eat limp sandwiches and drink orange from a flask at a roadside bench. But I had great memories of those family trips, and when I relocated back home recently after living in London and San Francisco for 15 years, I decided to introduce my English husband, Dom, and seven-year-old American daughter, Róisín, to the Ireland I grew up in.