Handing over crown ‘bittersweet’ for Rose
The Tipperary woman said the end of her reign would be counterbalanced by looking forward to her upcoming marriage in South Africa and the setting up of her own public relations business, but tonight’s selection of her successor might well spark tears.
“I don’t know whether there will be tears,” she said. “In my personal life I would cry at an advertisement on TV.
“But if I cry it will be out of pride.”
The 24-year-old will marry her fiancé Leon in his native South Africa in two months, and last year’s Roses from Cavan, Derry and New Jersey will be at the ceremony, along with some of the Rose of Tralee organising committee. Judge Daithí O’Sé also believes he’s among the invitees, and according to Aoife he probably is.
As she prepares to hand over her crown, there have already been some winners at this year’s festival, the latest the Escort of the Year, which was announced in the Dome last night.
Ben Tighe, a 29-year-old sales representative from Kildare, was the escort for the Milton Keynes Rose Candy Murphy and scooped the award ahead of Tralee’s Eoghan Kirby and Meath’s Mark McGarrell.
It is his second time as an escort at the festival, and last year he was also nominated for Escort of the Year.
“It’s a great achievement,” he said. “I did a lot of playing on the piano and generally entertaining.”
Overall the escorts have certainly made a big impression on their charges for the week, fetching and carrying dresses, coats and shoes and even escorting them to the toilet. Sydney Rose Romy Farrelly admitted that her escort, Mark McGarrell, seemed to be getting on with her fiancé better than she was, while Southern California Rose Brittany Kelly quipped: “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I go home – I’m just going to hire someone to clap everything that I do.”
It has also emerged that whoever wins the Rose of Tralee tonight has an invitation to meet President Mary McAleese next Tuesday.
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