A hen, stag, wake and wedding — all in one

LIKE the Rubik’s Cube that took centre stage last night, the secret to the success of the Rose of Tralee is confusing and difficult to solve.

Once again Ireland tuned in in its hundreds of thousands to watch 31 young ladies give their five minute lowdown on life, love and jury duty as proud parents and screaming supporters looked on.

But the unmarried women, all under 28 years of age, weren’t competing for a record contract or the lead in a musical — as is usual in such competitions these days. The girls were battling it out for the Rose of Tralee crown, Newbridge silverware, a world trip and the use of a Volvo C30 car for a year.

There was no shortage of talent on the stage in the Dome over the last two nights.

We had lawyers, auditors, teachers and accountants.

Last night we had before us an actress from New York who is fighting cancer, an architecture student and a belly dancer who works with the ESB. And that was just the first half.

Despite a slight dip of about 20,000, RTÉ viewing figures for the first night’s show were still impressive. A peak TV audience of 705,000 tuned in on Monday, which is generally lower than the second night’s viewing figures, which last year hit the million mark.

RTÉ said it was pleased with the figures, which were in line with 2006, given that last year was an exceptional one.

It doesn’t go unnoticed among the locals what the festival does for the town.

One group of local sixth year students, many of whom admitted to watching the show in secret, said — with a push — that they enjoy the week-long festival.

“I suppose I would watch it and the live bands are good. It’s good for tourism here,” said one 17-year-old.

And local business people are nodding in agreement.

Tralee estate agent Pauline Barrett said businesses in the area joined together to get the festival back on the streets, following attempts by organisers to keep it within the confines of the Dome.

“It has been great this year. We hope it’ll be around for a long time and we’ll make sure it stays in Tralee,” she said.

Last night RTÉ crew were dispatched onto the streets of Tralee for a reason other than the Rose.

Presenter Derek Mooney was drafted in to host the National Lottery Millionaire Draw, when two people became millionaires as part of a special draw where 300,000 tickets were sold for 500 prizes.

Caught in festival fever, Mooney said he felt the Rose of Tralee felt like a hen, stag, wake and wedding all rolled into one.

Once again this year bookies were in overdrive taking bets on who the eventual winner might be.

Sydney was the talk of the town on Monday, but Tipperary nudged ahead before close of business last night to finish as favourite on 7/4. (And how they were ultimately right.)

But one of the biggest cheers of the night went to Roscommon Rose, architecture student Triona O’Connor, who said she was going to solve a Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes, spurred on by her supporters in the audience dressed as Rubik’s Cubes.

Triona, whose mum used to be a nun, spoke of how she went in search of Batman — a town in Turkey – as she’s a big Batman fan.

“My personal favourite would be the 1960s style Batman. I love the irony in the series. But I love the new Batman too,” she said.

However, her moment in the spotlight came when she produced the Rubik’s Cube for her party piece, which Ray said was the strangest performance ever seen on the Rose.

She did it in one minute 23 seconds. Although she has a long way to go to beat the world record of nine seconds.