The Rose of Tralee
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The Rose of Tralee festival is an international competition which is celebrated among Irish communities all over the world. The festival takes its inspiration from a nineteenth century Irish ballad of the same name about a woman called Mary, who because of her beauty was called 'The Rose of Tralee'. The words of the song are credited to C. (or E.) Mordaunt Spencer and the music to Charles William Glover, but a story circulated in connection with the festival [1] claims that the song was written by William Pembroke Mulchinock, a wealthy Protestant, out of love for Mary O'Connor, a poor Catholic maid in service to his parents.
The idea for the festival came when a group of local business people met in Harty's bar in Tralee to come up with ideas to bring more tourists to the town during the horse racing meeting and to encourage ex-pats back to their native Tralee. Led by the late Dan Nolan, managing director of The Kerryman newspaper, they hit on the idea of the Rose of Tralee festival. The competition started in 1959.
The founders of the organisation were: Billy Clifford - an acccountant with the Rank Organisation who was one of the first recipients of the Golden Rose award (which was inaugurated to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Festival of Kerry); Dan Nolan, the owner of The Kerryman newspaper and involved with Tralee Races; Jo Hussey, a shopkeeper in Tralee and Ted Healy.
Originally, only girls from Tralee were eligable to compete, it was then extended to include girls from Kerry and now anyone with Irish descent is eligable, regardless of where they are from.
The Rose of Tralee festival is now held annually at the end of August in Tralee, County Kerry, to choose a young woman to be crowned the Rose. The winning Rose is the woman deemed to best match the attributes relayed in the song: "lovely and fair". The winner is selected based on her personality and should be a good role model for the festival and for Ireland during her travels around the world. In contrast to beauty pageants, there is no swimwear section in the Rose of Tralee contest and the contestants are not judged on their appearances but rather their over-all personality and suitability to serve as ambassadors for the festival.
Each of the 32 counties in Ireland select a Rose and there is also a Rós Fódhla representing the 'gaeltacht' or Irish speaking areas in Ireland. Regional finals are held in June where six Irish girls are selected to take part in the International Rose of Tralee festival. Roses from Kerry, Dublin and Cork automatically qualify for the festival held in August.
There are international Roses chosen from around the world who also participate in the Rose of Tralee festival. These include the centres of Birmingham, Boston, Darwin, Dubai, France, London, Luxembourg, Newcastle, New York, New Orleans, New Zealand, Perth, Queensland, San Francisco, Southern California, South Australia, Sydney, Texas, Toronto and many more centres who take part in the qualifying rounds.
The contest, which is broadcast over two nights by RTÉ, has been presented by Ray D'Arcy since 2005. It was previously presented for over twenty years by Gay Byrne. Other previous presenters include Ryan Tubridy, Marty Whelan and Derek Davis. The first presenter of The Rose of Tralee (prior to it being televised) was Kevin Hilton.
The festival has had financial difficulties in recent years, and has been "bailed out" with Irish taxpayers' money.
The Channel 4 comedy Father Ted parodied the festival in the episode "Rock-a-Hula Ted".
Will Scally produced and directed a Channel Four documentary called 'Rose of Tralee'.
[edit] Winners 1959–2007
| Year | Name | Represented |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Alice O'Sullivan | Dublin |
| 1960 | Theresa Kenny | Chicago |
| 1961 | Josie Ruane | Cork |
| 1962 | Ciara O'Sullivan | Dublin |
| 1963 | Geraldine Fitzgerald | Boston |
| 1964 | Margaret O'Keeffe | Tralee |
| 1965 | Therese Gillespie | Belfast |
| 1966 | Lorraine Stollery | New Zealand |
| 1967 | Anne Foley | Birmingham |
| 1968 | Eileen Slattery | Clare |
| 1969 | Cathy Quinn | Dublin |
| 1970 | Kathy Welsh | Holyoke |
| 1971 | Linda McGreevey | Miami |
| 1972 | Claire Dubendorfer | Switzerland |
| 1973 | Veronica McCambridge | Belfast |
| 1974 | Maggie Flaherty | New York |
| 1975 | Maureen Shannon | London |
| 1976 | Marie Soden | New York |
| 1977 | Orla Burke | Waterford |
| 1978 | Liz Shovlin | Pennsylvania |
| 1979 | Marita Marron | Belfast |
| 1980 | Sheila O'Hanrahan | Galway |
| 1981 | Debbie Carey | Birmingham |
| 1982 | Laura Gainey | Peterborough |
| 1983 | Brenda Hyland | Waterford |
| 1984 | Diane Hannagan | Limerick |
| 1985 | Helena Rafferty | Boston |
| 1986 | Noreen Cassidy | Leeds |
| 1987 | Larna Canoy | Chicago |
| 1988 | Mary Ann Murphy | New Zealand |
| 1989 | Sinéad Boyle | Dublin |
| 1990 | Julia Dawson | Germany |
| 1991 | Denise Murphy | Cork |
| 1992 | Niamh Grogan | Galway |
| 1993 | Kirsty Flynn | Midlands UK |
| 1994 | Muirne Hurley | Limerick |
| 1995 | Nyomi Horgan | Perth |
| 1996 | Colleen Mooney | Toronto |
| 1997 | Sinéad Lonergan | France |
| 1998 | Mindi O'Sullivan | Galway |
| 1999 | Geraldine O'Grady | Cork |
| 2000 | Róisín Egenton | New York |
| 2001 | Lisa Manning | Perth |
| 2002 | Tamara Gervasoni | Italy |
| 2003 | Orla Tobin | Dublin |
| 2004 | Orla O'Shea | Kilkenny |
| 2005 | Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin | Mayo |
| 2006 | Kathryn Anne Feeney | Queensland |
| 2007 | Lisa Murtagh | New York |
