Weekender

Louise Duffy in Castlebar

My ideal weekend is at home in Mayo,

staying with my parents. They moved from Crossmolina to Castlebar a few years ago, so it’s not back to my childhood bedroom, and the Boyzone posters are gone from the walls.

If I get down early on a Friday evening, we might go to Bar One

for dinner. Then maybe to Johnny McHale’s for a drink. You’d always see someone you haven’t seen in ages. More friends and cousins are moving back home, and I love that.

On Saturday, we might go out for breakfast to Cafe Rua,

or we’d cook at home. Two of my brothers live close by, and one of them just had a baby, so they’ll all come around. My brother, who lives in Dublin, might be down too, so that’s a lot of us, if you include in-laws. My dad had to build an extension to the table.

Often we’d go into Galway for the afternoon.

My dad has a little cruiser there. For an epic trip, we might take it out to the Aran Islands.

On Saturday night, we’d go to my cousins’ pub, Leonards in Lahardane.

Paul [Galvin] likes coming home with me. One of his friends married one of the Leonards — they met through us — so he has back-up in Mayo now.

My dad cooks on a Sunday.

It will be steaks, as that’s the only meal he does. Then we might walk on Enniscrone beach. Because I work week nights, I don’t have to dash off to Dublin with that lonesome Sunday-night feeling. The older I get, the more I tend to gravitate to home. I love it, really. Louise Duff y presents ‘Lost in Music with Louise Duff y’, from 7-9pm, Monday to Friday, on Today FM In conversation with Sarah Caden