Cameras, lights and plenty drama on and off stage
Taking a spill – literally – in advance of last night’s on-screen interviews was Armagh Rose Lisa McClelland.
She revealed beforehand that she had twisted her ankle the previous night and was attended to by two of her fellow contestants before being taken to hospital for a precautionary X-ray.
Lisa used crutches during her rehearsal yesterday but said she would abandon them and revert to the high heels for the real interview last night.
“It’s just a tiny hitch,” she said. “This could be far worse. Someone’s foot was blocking my foot and I literally just turned around to put my water on the bar to leave and I went down.
“I went in for an X-ray just to be sure but we knew it was nothing serious. It looks worse than it is.”
The Armagh Rose wasn’t the only one in the wars. Sligo Rose Sinead McGill revealed she lost a toe nail surfing recently.
Away from these physical concerns the Roses displayed an eclectic range of talents last night.
In a first for the festival, Toronto Rose Sarah Kelly Sullivan brought a five-foot long boa constrictor on stage. Sarah owns her own snake and has worked in a zoo. Understandably host Ray D’Arcy seemed slightly less at ease as the snake slithered around.
German Rose Jessica Kreuz said what she thought might be “the worst year of my life has been the most brilliant year of my life”.
The Munich-based midwife became seriously ill in Thailand last year, but has happily recovered and charmed the audience in the Dome with her version of Moon River on the clarinet.
Philadelphia Rose Jocelyn McGillian, a classically trained singer, gave full operatic vent to a German standard. French Rose Melodie O’Neill played harp and sang The Flower of Magherally, while New Zealand Rose Lisa Monaghan – who celebrated her birthday the previous day – blasted through a high octane lip sync version of River Deep, Mountain High.
There is a genuine air of camaraderie among the contestants. Waterford Rose Orna Middleton, first on last night, said “everyone is cheering each other on”, while Sydney Rose Romy Farrelly dismissed any idea of on-screen nerves.
“It is just a well-dressed chat,” she said in advance of her appearance last night. It also seems that booze is out and Berocca is in as the Roses attempt to maintain the frantic pace of festival week.
Even before last night’s TV interviews the Roses had a host of engagements to fulfil, including a photocall with legendary GAA commentator Micheál O Muircheartaigh and some members of the Kerry football panel in aid of Walk for the Cure, a charity walk by former Kerry player Ger Power, in memory of his daughter Jane and in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. The US Ambassador Daniel Rooney also chatted with the Roses at a civic reception at Kerry County Council.
Meanwhile, RTÉ are confident of some of the biggest television audiences of the year after it emerged that a documentary on the five decades of the festival, screened earlier this week, attracted 495,000 viewers – a 35% share of the national TV audience figures.
Tonight’s crowning of the Rose is sure to exceed that. It could go down to the wire, with bookmakers still placing Kerry Rose Karen McGillycuddy as their favourite.
