Just don’t call it a beauty pageant

A WOMAN’S world was a different place when Alice O’Sullivan was crowned the first Rose of Tralee representing Dublin in 1959.

An innocent and reserved 19-year-old, she found the experience surreal and the attention embarrassing. Now in her 70s, she retains her trademark curls, a picture of beauty in her enduring modesty and gentle poise.

Alice is refreshing in her honest account of the first festival, which evolved originally from Tralee’s Carnival Queen event, reorganised and resurrected by a group of local business people after a decade of decline.