What's your earliest holiday memory?I remember going to Butlins on the train every year with my family from the age of five. We had big old suitcases and stayed in the same chalet. There were amusements, shows, rollerblading, a skating rink and golf. It was great fun.
What was your worst holiday?I haven't had anything bad happen to me on holidays. Most of my holidays were camping or renting a cottage in Ireland, and I was generally delighted to be going anywhere. I took my first sun holiday a few years ago. It was great, and I just thought, Oh, look at the sun.
What was your best holiday?I did a working holiday in San Francisco, as I was doing a play over there. It is such a diverse city and a really creative place. It's there that I started to write my play, Black Bessie. I was really taken by the raw poverty on the streets of San Francisco. The homeless people carried their world around them in their shopping trolleys and at night would set up their home around them, with important objects like books and photos. I was very moved by it. I made lots of sketches and photos around the city, so I could visually record and remember certain things.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?Backpacking around Asia for a good six months, especially now that the kids are older. Seeing a really different continent and a completely different culture first hand would be extraordinary.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?The actor Viggo Mortensen: he's fluent in many languages, he's an artist and photographer, he's swashbuckling – so I'd be well protected – and he's very easy on the eye.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Along the road from Louisburgh, in Co Mayo, to Leenane, in Co Galway, is a drive from Doo Lough to Drummin. It is the last frontier in Ireland. It's very untouched, with beautiful lakes and wooded landscapes.
Your recommended holiday reading?If going on a beach holiday I'd like a good read such as The Bolterby Frances Osborne. If travelling on an adventure I would bring an empty book with a pen and pencil and make my own book, with a diary, sketches and photographs.
Where will you go to next?I'm saving to do a course at the Florence Academy of Art, in Italy. I'd love to do the course in sculpture, painting and drawing in the Renaissance style. For four weeks they teach you the way the old masters would have drawn. I've been invited over to have a look, so hopefully I will go before Christmas.
Úna Kavanagh is stagingBlack Bessie , her one-woman play, at a bush in Merrion Square, Dublin, during Absolut Fringe, which runs from today until September 20th. She also plays Heather Daly in Fair City
In conversation with Genevieve Carbery