Tonight we find out who Rose to occasion

TONIGHT is the night when the new Rose of Tralee will be unveiled — and then crowned by last year’s winner, Australia’s Kathryn Feeney.

“The new Rose of Tralee will have such a lot to look forward to,” said Kathryn, 24.

“I get to crown her on stage and say a few words about how great my year has been — and then it’s all over for me.

“But the winner will have the best year of her life.”

Yesterday the first bunch of Roses were put through rehearsals ahead of last night’s live coverage on RTÉ Television with host Ray D’Arcy.

With a nod to the international flavour of the town’s festival, coverage of the Rose selection is also being broadcast worldwide via the www.rte.ie website.

Thanks to the live streaming, supporters of Roses from as far away as New Zealand, California and Luxembourg will add to this year’s audience.

While yesterday’s hectic rehearsals were occupying the Roses, their friends and family were being honoured with a civic reception in Tralee.

But for Texan Kathy Foley — mother of the Lone Star State’s Rose Meagan Foley — the honour belonged to Tralee.

“For my daughter this is the experience of a lifetime to come here and be part of the Rose of Tralee,” she said.

“The support from Texas is tremendous but the support from Ireland and the local community is beyond what I would have dreamed of.”

Meagan, 24, is among the Roses with more unusual claims to fame: her grandfather Charles Foley invented the children’s game Twister.

At school Meagan starred in a production of Brigadoon with Kelly Clarkson, who later rose to fame by winning television’s American Idol pop show.

This year RTÉ has added a bit of spice to the running schedule by lining up the Dublin and Cork Roses against one another.

Last night Dublin Rose Aoife Judge, 21, was first up for a grilling by Ray D’Arcy and tonight Cork Rose Mary-Rose Howell, 24, will be first.

Despite insisting her name has nothing to do with the Rose of Tralee, Mary-Rose could be in with an edge over her 30 fellow contestants.

“I met Ray before when I was nine,” she said “My mother won housewife of the year in 1992 but he says he doesn’t remember me. He is lovely, though.”

Tonight will also be the night when Mary-Rose’s fellow Munster Roses will be on stage competing for the coveted crown.

Kerry Rose Laura Costelloe, 22, who is among the punters’ favourites to win, will be joined by Limerick Rose Michelle Carroll, also 22.

Michelle is a huge fan of the Rose of Tralee.

“There’s this picture of the intelligent, well-educated woman with a strong personality,” she said. “Any parent would want their children to be like that.”

Last on tonight will be the France Rose, Dublin-born Madeleine Barry, 23, who is an international as the Roses come.

“I’m a quarter Gambian, a quarter French-Canadian and half-Irish,” she said.

Enjoying the fun ahead of tonight’s appearance, she laughed: “What girl would not want to be surrounded by gorgeous men in tuxedos?”

Meanwhile, Madeleine’s escort, Wexford tillage farmer Philip Kehoe, was last night unveiled as the escort of the year.

The New Ross 30-year-old was voted the winning escort by a secret ballot of the 31 Roses.