Roses get taste of traditional Irish weather

The international contestants in this year’s Rose of Tralee festival got a perfect introduction to Irish weather today as they attended their first event.

The 30 shivering contestants from warmer climes and the Irish ladies ignored the cold and wet as they were introduced to returning host Ray D’Arcy who will interview each Rose live on television next week.

“I have overheard a number of people saying you should have been here three weeks ago, a typical Irish thing,” the host joked. “Believe me we did have a summer everyone is saying to them.”

The presenter said the audience can expect the usual format of interviews and chat as the 48th Rose of Tralee International Festival airs live from Co Kerry on August 21 and 22.

“If it is not broke don’t fix it,” the host joked. “I think a lot of people say on television you don’t really do anything properly until you do it for a second time. There would have been a lot of nerves last year, so I am looking forward to this year with a year’s experience under my belt.”

Roses have travelled from afar to take part in the competition including Darwin, Dubai, Perth, New Orleans, New York, New Zealand, Philadelphia and Queensland.

Despite the distance, Kathryn Feeney, the 23-year-old Queensland Rose, whose grandfather James Feeney hailed from Ferbane in Co Offaly, is being accompanied by an entourage of 21 family members travelling from Australia and the US.

“It is a big holiday for us, it’s the first my dad has taken in 30 years,” Kathryn, who works part-time as a veterinary nurse while studying, said. “I’m looking forwards to meeting the escorts, one is a vet so it should be interesting.”

The Cork Rose, Patricia Cotter, 26, from Cobh, revealed the competition was also heating up in Munster ahead of Sunday’s Football Championship semi-final match.

“Colleen, the Kerry girl, there is great rivalry between the two of us. She is saying Kerry is going to walk all over Cork, and I’m saying well you shouldn’t be so sure.”

Patricia revealed she grew up going to the festival as her family had a mobile home just outside of Tralee.

“I don’t know who put me forward, it is a mystery. I thought you know once I got the Cork Rose they would say ‘I did it’,” she said.

Patricia said her job as a secondary school teacher at St Coleman’s Community College in Middleton will stand to her in front of the television cameras.

“I am quite used to having a hard crowd in front of me, so it will probably be easier because there will be no-one heckling me,” she joked. “I’m looking forward to meeting the escorts alright, they look like a rowdy bunch.”

The bookies have installed Kerry Rose, Colleen Shannon, as the outright favourite to win the 2006 Rose of Tralee. The 21-year-old student from Killarney has been priced at 8-1 at Ladbrokes.

“It is a very modern event in the sense obviously the Roses are modern ladies, they are confident, intelligent, educated and they are not interested in portraying themselves as old fashioned or anything like it,” Anthony O’Gara, the managing director of the festival, said. “It is a fun event, we don’t take it too seriously.

“We don’t try to define too much what it is.”

O’Gara said the event attracts huge crowds to Tralee.

“The TV show last year was the third highest viewership of all TV events on all channels. There was almost a million people viewed it on the last night,” he said.

“It is a huge audience, it is a big big event in Tralee and it is important for Irish communities around the world that like to get involved and come back to Tralee and celebrate their heritage.”

O’Gara said organisers would be working to ensure more Irish communities abroad can participate in the contest in coming years.

The festival grew from the tradition of Tralee’s Carnival Queen, and is also based on celebration of the 19th century Rose of Tralee love song.