It’s a small world as Roses go way back

THEY say Ireland is such a small place everyone is connected, but when it comes to the Rose of Tralee that same claim could just as easily be made about the world.

Despite hundreds of women applying for this year’s contest from locations as diverse as Queensland in Australia, Toronto in Canada, southern California in the US and Luxembourg in, well, Luxembourg, three of the 2010 finalists have a history with each other.

Liverpool and San Francisco Roses, Aine Shine and Roisín Hunt, revealed they went to the same secondary school in the Roscommon townland of Ballymurray and were both involved in the same GAA club as teenagers.