In the 1970s street trader Rosie Johnson was crowned the Queen of Moore Street. The tradition died out and is sorely missed by the traders and shoppers on Moore Street.
As part of a project undertaken for the Dublin Fringe Festival, artists Glen Loughran and Emer O’Boyle decided to revive the competition. As a result, the 2005 Queen of Moore Street title was given to 84-year-old fishmonger May Gorman. A shocked May was crowned at a ceremony on Moore Street attended by Independent TD for Dublin Tony Gregory.
Born across the road from where she sells her fish, May has worked on Moore Street since she was 16. Her mother was a fishmonger and May inherited her fish stall from her aunt. Selling fish is in her blood and she admits she will never retire as her work keeps her alive.
Fellow street trader Margaret Buckley says May is an icon of Moore Street traders and traders worldwide.
They don’t make them like her anymore. May loves the street, she lives and breathes Moore Street. We don’t. Moore Street is keeping May alive, it’s killing us.
As part of her prize May received a portrait of herself painted by Professor Brian Maguire from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
A ‘Nationwide’ report broadcast on 20 February 2006. The reporter is Roisín Ní Eadhra.
“She was well known on the street all through the years. She’d be singing and dancing. She was a real character.
“Her aunt Hennie brought her up after her own mother died, and when my own mother died of cancer when I was nine, Nanny brought us up with our father. She taught us everything.
“My mother did some trading on the street in her day, and now I run a stall with my sister Lauren off my nanny’s table, so we’re the fourth generation of our family trading there.
“When I walk onto Moore Street I feel a sense of home, and I can feel Nanny around me,” she added.
Lavinia explained that comedian Brendan O’Carroll interviewed May for more than nine hours before he wrote the Mrs Brown’s Boys movie, and she let him use her table in the film.
“The street trader parts of the film were based on Nanny. She died before it was released but we all went to the premier in the Savoy,” said Lavinia.
May died in June 2013 at the age of 92 having retired three years earlier in 2010.
On the day of her funeral, Moore Street came to a standstill as her coffin was brought past her old pitch one last time, and a respectful round of applause from the traders rang out while an uilleann piper played Molly Malone.
“We were hoping to have a big street party for her, with balloons and musicians. But instead, we will gather at her grave,” said Lavinia, who is hoping to eventually have a plaque erected on Moore Street in honor of May.
Lavinia’s daughter Chelsea is following in the family's footsteps as a trader, having established a cake-baking business.