Mrs Brown’s Boys star Eilish O’Carroll has confessed her love for Moore Street ahead of the Christmas season.

The 72-year-old said she’ll never forget the wind-up toys and cheap cosmetic sets they sold when she was a kid, along with the sounds of the carol singers.

Eilish, who plays Winnie on the hit TV show, is currently on tour around the country performing Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Live Show: A Musical for Moore Street.

Brendan O’Carroll wrote seven songs for the show, a homage to the market where his mother once worked.

“The musical is about us trying to stop the local council from shutting down Moore Street,” Eilish said.

“We’re Moore Street traders. It’s a lovely, feel good, light-hearted show, and very funny. The theme is saving Moore Street.

“I love Moore Street, as a kid, and even now. Moore Street has changed a lot over the years. It’s very cosmopolitan now, it used to just be Dublin traders when I was growing up.”

Eilish said she grew up in a vastly different Dublin compared to what it is today, and she is grateful for it.

“Moore Street was full of characters, especially at Christmas. They didn’t just sell fruit and vegetables. There were wind-up toys, cheap cosmetic sets and it was the sound and the smell I remember most,” she said.

“They’d be singing out three for five pounds. I remember the year it changed from pounds to euro. I could hear this woman singing ‘get your wrapping paper, only €2’. It was just lovely. There were carol singers on Henry Street too.

“You could get your Christmas jumpers there, Christmas socks. You can still do that now, but it was just a completely different atmosphere, it was very working class. It was mainly women doing the trading, very few men. I still love going in on Christmas Eve.

“We’d never go to Grafton Street because we could never afford anything there. We’d go to Talbot Street, Henry Street, Woolworths, and Clerys.

“I have some lovely memories of looking into Clerys window because they used to do a lovely Christmas display. It was just a lovely experience as a kid.

“In Finglas, I remember the first supermarket opening close to our home. When I say close, it was a good 20-minute walk. We didn’t have a car, so you’d be carrying everything back.

“My mum used to work nights and on her way home in the morning, she’d call into Moore Street and get some of the veggies. She’d pick up what she could carry, but then she had to get a bus or two buses home.

“It’s completely different now. It’s not to say Christmas isn’t special now, but the kids would have very different kinds of memories.

“I do remember it very fondly. Fruit was expensive, there were 10 of us so we didn’t get oranges as presents.

“We got one decent present, then the rest were little bits and pieces. But I loved coming down at 4am on Christmas morning to open the presents from Father Christmas.”

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Live Show: A Musical for Moore Street, is touring Ireland between now and December 22, including three shows in Dublin’s 3Arena