Like a lot of people during the pandemic, my family bought a dog.

Five years later, Ferdy has accidentally become the central decision-maker in almost every holiday we take.

While other people my age are posting about rooftop cocktails in Lisbon or beach clubs in Marbella, my family are searching for dog-friendly accommodation in places like Bushmills, Newcastle, Cavan and rural Kildare because none of us can bear the thought of leaving him behind.

This year we are heading to Fivemiletown in Co Tyrone.

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Every time one of these trips is announced by my mum, our family’s self-appointed travel agent, I react in roughly the same way: mild disappointment, quickly followed by dramatic assumptions that I am about to spend several days bored out of my mind in the middle of nowhere.

And........

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