Rory O’Connell and Darina Allen pay tribute to Christmas past
“If you’re on holidays, you will be going along having a lovely time, and you’ll come to a wall, and in the wall there will be a door, and there might be a suggestion of something nice inside, a lovely garden or whatever, and on the door, it will say ‘Do Not Enter’ as in ‘go away’. I am the person who believes the sign and retreats. Darina does not believe the sign, she knocks on the door, somebody opens it irately saying: ’who are you, what on earth, can’t you see…’ and then they go ‘Darina! Come in!’” And, as recounted by her brother Rory O’Connell, that is the secret of Darina Allen’s success. Allen is in fits of laughter at O’Connell’s cheeky reply to my question about how they are different.
“Darina says I’m inquisitive, but she is a lot more inquisitive. That is part of the secret of her success, being terrifyingly, exhaustingly inquisitive,” he says.
