Down Rose criticises festival and ‘cheap reality TV show’

A post from the Facebook account of the Down Rose, Fainche McCormack, has criticised the Rose of Tralee as well as a documentary by RTÉ on the event.

“I, and my fellow rose sisters, did not sign up for a cheap reality television show in which our emotions would be manipulated for entertainment purposes, nor did we sign up to be treated like animals in the circus and held in a room against our will,” read the post.

The comments were posted to the official Facebook page of the Rose of Tralee yesterday from Ms McCormack’s account: “Cameras intrusively followed us all week and asked inappropriate probing questions.”

The since-deleted comments were referring to a documentary called the Road to the Dome, which was commissioned by RTÉ and produced in co-operation and agreement with the Rose of Tralee committee.

In a joint statement from RTÉ and the Rose of Tralee Festival, the Irish Examiner was told that all 65 Roses were informed that they were being filmed at all times. “The 65 Roses were aware from the outset that they were being filmed at all stages in the run-up to the live television shows. This also included the selection process where the 65 became 32 for the live televised programmes.”

“We regret the Down Rose, Fainche McCormack, was upset at elements of the filming process and RTÉ and the Rose of Tralee Festival have agreed to review the process for next year,” read the statement.

Speaking to breakingnews.ie, the executive chairman of the festival, Anthony O’Gara, acknowledged the Sunday morning segment was “insensitive”.

“It’s a natural thing that people will become very disappointed when they don’t progress in the Rose of Tralee. The manner in whichThe Road to the Dome, was finished was insensitive and we didn’t anticipate that. We wouldn’t like to see it repeated and we apologised to the Roses.”