John Mahoney, best known for playing Marty Crane in Frasier and for his powerful stage performances at numerous Galway Arts Festival productions, has rated Galway as his favourite holiday destination in the world.
The Irish-American actor was interviewed recently by the Chicago Tribune for the newspaper’s travel section. When asked “What’s your favourite vacation spot?,” he replied Galway city.
He said he chose Galway because it is “so beautiful and vibrant” and because it is “perfectly located for trips up and down the coast to the Cliffs of Moher, Connemara, the Aran Islands and the Ring of Kerry”.
Mr Mahoney said he has been to Galway “about 12 times” through his appearances at the Galway Arts Festival, an evening with T-Bone Burnett, work with Northlight Theatre, and following an invitation by the Abbey Theatre to do a play.
He also singled out Galway theatre audiences for high praise.
“The audiences are great there,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t hear a candy wrapper; they didn’t move. I was out with Tom Murphy, the playwright, and he said, ‘Theatre’s sacred to the Irish people’.”
When asked what kind of places he seeks out when he travels, he replied “local, not fancy, restaurants”.
“If I go to Galway,” the actor said, “there are some very fancy places, but I like the ordinary places where everyone who lives there goes to. Fish-and-chips shop, a pub - you get such great meals in England and Ireland.”
