Yet another famous actor has come west, with Eastenders star Jessie Wallace taking a picture beside The Galway Girl statue in the Latin Quarter.

The native of London, who plays barmaid Kat Slater in the BBC soap opera, reportedly went swimming in Blackrock and was spotted walking the Prom over the weekend. The holiday saw her tour the west coast, including stop-offs in the Clare tourist hotspots of Kilrush and Kilkee.

Her picture sitting outside the Quays bar beside the bronze statue was shared by the Latin Quarter traders as well as the pub, owned by the Dublin hospitality group Louis Fitzgerald’s, which also owns Tigh Neachtain across the street and Murphys on High Street.

Her character has dominated the long-running soap since she joined the cast in 2000 with some of the most controversial storylines – she was raped by her uncle at 13 and gave birth to a daughter who was passed off as her sister. When she gave birth to another child, he is swapped for a stillborn boy delivered in the same hospital, a plot which attracted 6,000 complaints to the national broadcaster.

She has become penniless, turned a millionaire, discovered she had a secret twin boy who was a murderous Catholic priest.

Her real life has attracted almost as many headlines, getting arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and disorderly conduct in 2022, being banned from the road for drunk driving in 2003 and getting suspended by the BBC for bad behaviour as a result of issues with alcohol and drugs.

The 52-year-old revealed on the Late Late Show that her parents used to take her to Dublin every Christmas to visit family which she did not enjoy.

Pictured: Actress Jessie Wallace (aka Eastenders Kat Slater) posing outside the Quays on her visit to Galway.