Shape I’m In: Why Francis Brennan has no time to worry
“My parents got married in 1951 and my dad had bought a tail coat for the occasion. I used to dress up in it when I was about eight or nine. And when they said they were going to open a guesthouse or a hotel in Sligo I thought it would be great I could wear that coat. It’s great when you know where you want to go and then when you get there you’re happy.”
Happy and successful as it turns out. Now aged 61, he is the owner of the five-star Park Hotel in Kenmare, Co Kerry, and has become a household name with his hit TV show At Your Service, which he presents with his younger brother John.
A professional multi-tasker, he says he doesn’t suffer from stress and if a hint of anxiety creeps in he is quick to take control.
“I would talk myself out of any anxious moments. I take deep breaths and say to myself ‘Just keep going — now stop it.’ In the hotel business that could happen every day because there is always some crisis going on.”
* The Little Things, Francis Brennan’s Guide to Life, Gill and Macmillan, €14.99.
I was at the doctor ten weeks ago and he told me that my weight was the same as it was in 1988. I thought that was good. I feel great and I’m fine. I’ve never went to a gym.
No — I keep myself busy at work. I won’t use the elevator — I go up and down the stairs; in and out of the restaurant. I get a lot of exercise that way.
I have a bad right foot, which I was born with. It was called club foot. I had 11 operations as a kid. Now I’m grand and I walk. Five years ago I did something and wasn’t able to walk on it for about four days. I went back to Cappagh Hospital and the doctor said I might have to have surgery. It’s just one of the those things that hangs over you –it’s why I shy away from gyms or running and I never played football. There was a concern when I was born I’d never walk . I’ve done really well.
I always eat an apple going to bed. I go upstairs, read the paper and bring an apple. I think it helps the metabolism, moves everything through the system and it keeps you all nice and tidy and clean inside. I am extremely disciplined in my eating habits. In a hotel, people are kind to the reception staff and may be given a box of chocolates. I’d love a Dairy Milk or Turkish Delight but I just say no. I don’t need it and I won’t take it. My mother says I was always like that as a child — since I was seven or eight years of age.
A bag of Tayto — cheese and onion. Three times a year I know I have to have salt and that’s when I know I need a bag of crisps.
I sleep like a log.
I’m very bad ... I never really relax. I just work and go — that’s my problem. When we close in January, February and March, I do sales. Last year I was in America and did 19 cities in seven weeks.
Nelson Mandela, Priscella Black, Jackie and John F Kennedy and Christina Noble.
Stephanotis — a plant. I have a very good sense of smell. I never smoked or drank alcohol.
I would like to be able to wear a nice pair of shoes but I can’t because I have to get my shoes made. Tuffys in Nass have made my shoes for the last 55 years — I am one of their longest customers.
At a movie. Sometimes I get hysterical — I’m desperate. I completely get absorbed in them.
Dullness — I just like people to be alive and kicking.
I talk too much. Sometimes I wonder if I’m upsetting everyone else with all this talk. But I find it very difficult to talk less.
I keep a set of rosary beads in my brief case. They were given to me by Pope John Paul II after a private Mass in Rome. I say a prayer every night and every morning. I go to church every Sunday.
Everybody being happy — that’s all I’ve ever wanted.
