lit a candle 4h agofound Fair City on youtube like two years ago during a rough winter and Christy Phelan's corner shop scenes were the ones that actually made me laugh out loud. so strange to feel sad about someone I only knew through old clips but here we are.
Their story
Thomas "Tom" Hopkins was a Dublin actor best known for playing Christy Phelan, the owner of the Carrigstown corner shop, in the RTE soap opera Fair City. He appeared in the role in 74 episodes between 1998 and 2014, making Christy one of the show's familiar faces for a generation…
Thomas "Tom" Hopkins was a Dublin actor best known for playing Christy Phelan, the owner of the Carrigstown corner shop, in the RTE soap opera Fair City. He appeared in the role in 74 episodes between 1998 and 2014, making Christy one of the show's familiar faces for a generation of Irish viewers.
Hopkins came to acting by an unusual route. In the 1970s he played in a band called The Utopians, and he later worked in the civil service before leaving to return to education as a mature student, studying drama at Trinity College Dublin. Shortly before his graduation, professional actors told him about an open audition for a supermarket advertisement. He got the part, and two weeks after the advert aired the producer of Fair City called him in to audition.
Over 16 years on the show, Christy Phelan's storylines included his affair with local publican Carol Foley, his separation from his wife Renee and a long run of health troubles. In September 2014, in episodes broadcast around the soap's 25th anniversary, Christy suffered a stroke and then a fatal heart attack at home while his son-in-law Max froze and fled. The exit was one of the most talked-about in the show's history and left fans mourning the character online.
Tom Hopkins died on Monday 26 October 2026, surrounded by his family and in the care of staff at the Carechoice Step Down Facility and St James's Hospital in Dublin, according to his funeral notice. Donations in his memory were asked for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. He was survived by his wife Tina, his four sons Anthony, John, Wayne and Lee, his grandchildren and extended family.
His death was reported on 30 October 2026, four days after he died, and the news brought tributes from Fair City viewers who remembered Christy as a fixture of Carrigstown life in the late 1990s and 2000s. For an actor who had begun his screen career only after years in the civil service, his 16 year run on Ireland's longest-running soap was a remarkable second act, and the corner shop he ran on screen remains part of the show's history.
Biography adapted from TheJournal.ie, Irish Mirror, Irish Independent and his funeral notice.
In their own words
“It was before my graduation. Some professional actors told me of an open audition for a supermarket ad and I went along and got the part.”
On how he came to Fair City, in an earlier interview quoted by TheJournal.ie
Photos
1by People Forever
same, found it through a random clip and got hooked on the whole Carrigstown thing