Christmas is coming as auditions for Late Late Toy Show begin in Cork

The leaves are still clinging to the trees but if you were walking down Cork’s South Mall yesterday, there was a sense of it: Christmas. It’s coming.

There were a few give-aways, not least the various musical troupes all kitted out, waiting their turn to audition for The Late Late Toy Show — the traditional starting gun for the festive period. And in the midst of it all, a self-confessed “big kid”, host Ryan Tubridy.

He was in town for the first of the scheduled auditions, with more in Galway and Dundalk to come.