My holidays

KAREN ARDIFF - actor

What’s your earliest holiday memory?

We used to go to Spain and I thought it was very posh! Those were the days you’d come back with a “I’ve been to Malaga” T-shirt. It was a big deal and innocent times when people had just started to go abroad. I vividly recall the taxi from the airport and not understanding why everything was brown instead of green. I’ve memories of arriving home clutching a big stuffed donkey and sombrero.

What was your worst holiday?

I haven’t had a bad holiday. However, I’m not great with hot climates and can find myself wrapped up under a sun umbrella – but I don’t count that as a bad experience.

What was your best holiday?

I have a recurring best holiday. My cousin has a cottage in the Mullagh peninsula, Co Mayo. When I was single I would go there to write. I’m an avid birdwatcher so used to spend the daylight hours watching birds and dolphins, and write in the evening.

It was also the first place I went on holiday with my partner and with my new baby too. It’s paradise. It is so remote. There is nowhere to go as it’s 30 minutes to the nearest town. It has a dramatic landscape that changes from minute to minute – you couldn’t be bored looking at it. All you need is a case of wine, a big box of food and good company (or in the early days no company at all).

If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?

I’ve a grá to go to Alaska and I’m not sure why. It has extraordinary history, like the gold rush of the 1890s when wild frontier towns sprang up and disappeared in two years. I’d like to visit them and would love to see the wildlife and the landscape. I’ve a play opening next year set in Alaska in the 1890s, even though I’ve never been there.

If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?

Nick, my partner, and Harry my six-month-old son. I’d also love to go on holiday with my sister and her family who have emigrated to Philadelphia.

What’s your favourite place in Ireland?

It definitely has to be Mayo. However, we go somewhere every weekend, like Howth or Wicklow. Ireland is beautiful. Another dream holiday would be to travel around Ireland and see everywhere, including more of Donegal and Connemara.

Your recommended holiday reading?

I like reading books on holiday that you can be intrigued with but satisfied by after half an hour and can put down. Bill Bryson, collections of essays by Clive James or pop science books such as Guns, Germs and Steelby Jared Diamond.

Where will you go to next?

We’ll go to Philadelphia in March to see my sister. We plan to sneak off to New York for a weekend and leave the baby with her.

Actor Karen Ardiff will be in Rough Magic’s production of Peer Gynt by Ibsen at Belvedere College from September 30th to October 16th. See dublintheatrefestival.com.