New York lawyer is the Rose of Tralee

NEW Rose of Tralee Lisa Murtagh yesterday confessed she was hesitant about asking for time off work to attend the Rose of Tralee — for fear her bosses would think she was entering a beauty pageant.

The 27-year-old works for a New York law firm where she specialises in the respectable business of corporate and insurance law.

“I was fearful they would be thinking it was a beauty competition and in a law firm that’s not the right image by any means,” said the lawyer.

“I wanted to explain that the Rose of Tralee is about Irish heritage, femininity and being an ambassador for young Irish women. And when I explained it all they were quite impressed because they have a lot of Irish clients as Ireland is doing so well at the moment.”

Putting aside the diplomacy you’d expect from a lawyer, she is upbeat about her 30 fellow contestants who came from across the globe for a tilt at the coveted crown.

“The girls who get through are so accomplished and intelligent,” she said.

“Ireland should be very proud to have Irish girls like these and to have an Irish diaspora of that calibre.”

Indeed, so taken is she by the festival, Ms Murtagh wants to get her 25-year-old sister Sineád to enter.

“To anyone thinking about entering I would say you should undoubtedly do it. It’s an amazing experience. You are put together with these girls who are amazing, intelligent and outgoing.”

Asked what she is going to do during her year in office as Rose of Tralee, she said she needed to let her victory sink in before making her plans.

“I’m still in shock,” she said, adding she has not even checked her mobile phone for the congratulations messages from well wishers and friends in New York and elsewhere.

If the counties of Limerick and Longford were disappointed that their highly fancied Roses missed out on the crown, then they can call Lisa one of their own.

Her mother Breda, 56, is from Athea village, Co Limerick, while dad Colman, 58, is from Co Longford.

And for good measure she is dating a man from Limerick, 28-year-old Brian FitzGerald, from Askeaton.

Lisa, though, remains a New York Rose, having been born in the Bronx and raised in Queens.

She lives in Yonkers with mum and dad. “Law school’s so expensive, don’t you know,” she explains.

Lisa remembers a childhood where every summer her family would return to Ireland and tune in to watch the Rose of Tralee.

She remembers watching in awe as one year a Cork Rose whipped off the bottom half of her dress so she could perform a dance.

“I will always remember that. The memory gives you an appreciation of what the Rose of Tralee means to children,” she said.

This year’s pre-contest favourite Wicklow Rose Lisa Marie Berry, 20, must have been similarly inspired as she did the same stunt this year.

The New Yorker knew having the right dress was vital for her, too, and bought a dark green evening dress from New York boutique Jessica McClintock.

Whether her dress gave her the rub of the green is a moot point, but she’s a setting a track record for cities across the world to follow. For she is the fourth winner from New York since the city first scooped the Rose of Tralee title in 1974 and also endeared herself to the betting public who made her this year’s favourite.

And given the reaction she got from work when she asked for time off, she may not be the last.

“Once they realised what the Rose of Tralee was about they were great.”

With bosses like that in the cold world of the law, who’d bet against New York for giving us another Rose of Tralee any time soon?