Johnson, Rosanna (‘Rosie’) (1891–1987), street trader, was born 24 March 1891, daughter of William Walsh, labourer, of 6 Turner's Cottages, Dublin, and Julia Walsh (née Reilly). At the age of 12 she was selling violets on the street for a penny a bunch and by the time she was 17 she was operating her own stall on Moore St. For more than seventy years (c.1908–1978) she sold fruit, vegetables, and flowers from her stall, which occupied the number one ‘pitch’ on the corner of Moore St. and Henry St., in the morning, and drank stout and gossiped with the other traders in the afternoon. Her outgoing character and friendly demeanour towards traders and customers alike, combined with her trademark dress of a traditional shawl and green ribbon in her hair, meant that she soon became synonymous with Moore St. and Dublin. During her time as a trader she befriended celebrities such as Jimmy Durante and Maureen Potter (qv) (1925–2004) and had a song written about her, called ‘Rosie up in Moore St.’. Jimmy O'Dea (qv) was reputed to listen to her banter and chat for inspiration.
Her legendary consumption of bottles of stout – she often claimed that she drank more than twenty a day – added to her status as a Dublin icon of a bygone era. She lived at 12 Moore St. from shortly after she was born until the building was condemned and pulled down just before she retired (1978). Her pitch was taken over by her daughter-in-law and she went to live with her son at Edenmore Grove, Raheny, Co. Dublin. Despite her age she would get the first bus into Moore St. and sit by her old stall to chat to tourists, traders, and passers-by. Her longevity in the market earned her the affectionate nickname of ‘the queen of Moore Street’. She had two sons and one daughter (no other details of her marriage are known) and died 12 November 1987 at the James Connolly Memorial Hospital at the age of 96; her funeral cortège passed by her old pitch on its way to the pro-cathedral.