Cillian Murphy spotted filming his new movie in Co Wexford

Peaky Blinders star Cillian has been shooting in New Ross the flick Small Things Like These, which is based on the novel by Claire Keegan (the Wicklow writer also wrote Foster, which was adapted for film as An Cailín Ciúin)

The Co Wexford set film also stars Emily Watson, Ciarán Hinds and young actor Ian O’Reilly, who featured in Moone Boy.

On Monday, Quay Street was transformed into an old-school Christmas wonderland with bright festive lights, decorations and old electronics in shop windows and a crib.

A choir sang ‘Silent Night’ and there was cheering and lots of excitement from the extras, many of whom are local to New Ross.

The book is set during the weeks leading up to Christmas 1985 in New Ross and concerns Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season – Murphy plays Furlong in the film.

Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Furlong makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

The tome was shortlisted for the Booker prize and refers to a convent and a Magdalene Laundry.

Murphy (46) has this week been spotted filming night time scenes on Quay Street in New Ross.

Coup for Wexford town as Cillian Murphy to shoot movie based on ‘Small Things Like These' book

The film again reunites the Cork actor with writer and director Enda Walsh, with whom he first started working with as a teenager in 1996 with Disco Pigs.

Walsh has written the screenplay for Small Things Like These, which is being directed by Tim Mielants and has a budget of around E5 million.

Murphy has had huge success in recent years as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders, and has starred in Hollywood films such as 28 Days Later, A Quiet Place Part 11, The Dark Knight and Red Eye.

The Cork actor is married to long-time partner Yvonne McGuinness, whom he met while playing in a rock band in 1996.

The parents of two teenage sons have been living in Dublin for the past eight years, having previously lived in London from 2001 to 2015.