Oscar-winning Irish actress Brenda Fricker is recovering after she was rushed to hospital on Christmas Day after falling down the stairway of a picturesque castle.

The former star of hospital drama “Casualty” had been touring the historic Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan with friends when the accident occured.

She tripped while on her way down to the cellar which houses the cosy “dungeon bar”.

Ms Fricker, who won the 1989 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role as Christy Browns mother in “My Left Foot,” suffered two broken ribs in the fall.

And she had to get 20 stitches to a wound over her left eye.

“I just tripped over my own feet going down a stairs to the cellar. I split my eye open and got 20 stitches and broke a couple of ribs,” she said.

“I look a little like Mike Tyson has given me a good going over.

“It feels like I am having a heart attack all the time. I breathe and it hurts,” said the actress from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

The actress was taken by ambulance from the castle, which is near the village of Glaslough, to the hospital where she underwent emergency treatment.

A spokeswoman for the Heath Service Executive last night said she was in a “comfortable” position.