Rose of Tralee Night Two: 'We need festivals to celebrate women. We need these spaces'

Tue, 19 Aug, 2025 - 21:57

Neil Michael

Just when the Rose of Tralee appeared to have finally shed its image of a Father Ted parody centred around a fictional Lovely Girls competition, RTÉ’s Kathryn Thomas revived it all over again.

The co-presenter of this year’s second of two selection nights asked the Limerick Rose what she thought about critics of the contest who label it a “beauty pageant” or a “lovely girls competition”.

In those few short seconds, she reopened a debate many have long since believed is over.

Commentators have long since grown tired of referencing any notion that contestants - who this year include a diplomate, a barrister, and a financial consultant - have anything in common with the “happy maidens”.

They were nostalgically referenced in Éamon de Valera’s now infamous, and often misquoted, 1943 radio address about his vision for an ideal Ireland.

Limerick’s Leah McMahon, a financial planner and mother-of-one, seemed surprised by the question.

She replied: “We need festivals to celebrate women. We need these spaces.

“We are not asking to be more. We are just asking to be on the same level.” Of the critics, she added: “I think critics don’t get it.” Earlier in her appearance, Kathryn’s co-presenter Dáithí Ó Sé brought out a surprise birthday cake for her daughter, Ella, who was eight last night. The entire audience sang Happy Birthday to her.

A diplomat and a consultant with one of the biggest accountancy firms in the world were also among contestants in last night’s Rose of Tralee.

Highfliers Ottawa Rose Aidan Russell and Queensland Rose Siobhan Edwards joined 12 other roses for the second of two selection nights.

But while Cork Rose Nancy Lehane had led most of the festival as the favourite to win, a new favourite to emerge was the rose who opened last night’s selection night, Celeine O’Meara.

Those odds changed before the United Arab Emirates’ first rose contestant, who is a 28-year-old primary school teacher and musician from Limerick, had even appeared on stage at the Kerry Sports Academy at the Munster Technological University (MTU).

According to Ladbrokes, Celeine - who was welcomed on stage by co-presenter Dáithí Ó Sé - was the favourite to win, with odds of 5/2, as Nancy dropped to third favourite at 6/1 to win.

She and the other roses were all following on from the first selection night on Monday, which saw a number of mothers, a judicial assistant from the Four Courts, and a clinical research associate among 18 of the 32 contestants appear.

The two nights were the culmination of more than five days of the roses being judged in a variety of settings by this year’s panel of judges former Rose of Tralee Clare Kambamettu, RTÉ’s Nuala Carey, fashion designer Don O’Neill, and Aisling Murphy of sponsor Murphy’s New Homes.

Model Celeine, who is on a career break from Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh, Limerick, spoke of her teaching work in Sharjah, UAE, performing at various events across the UAE.

Next up, Sarah Anne Fritz, the German Rose, told show co-presenter Kathryn Thomas about how her German father wooed her Irish mother with the help of a dictionary as he couldn’t speak English and she couldn’t speak German.

She also said that she only entered the rose competition after she had a dream about the festival, and woke up deciding she would give it a go.

Ottawa's Aidan Russell, who works as a diplomat, told Daithi of how the highest and the lowest point of her life since her father died have been at the Rose of Tralee festival.

Her father had died just before Christmas, and she is currently involved in a number of legal issues around the settling of his estate.’ “My highest point was also the lowest point,” the 27-year-old, who hopes one day to be a hostage negotiator, told Daithi.

“We had a really tough night, and I had to step away to deal with some of the legal stuff.” But she said that what helped her get through it was the “outpouring of love” from her fellow roses.

Also appearing last night was Toronto Rose Rachel Hoare, who delighted in telling Kathryn how she had been treated so well by air crew when she was flying over to Ireland for the contest.

She told of how she had been given “extra pillows, free drinks, free wifi”.

The audience heard how she is a stroke survivor, who has learning difficulties, including having Dyscalculia - a learning disability that affects a person's ability to understand and work with numbers and mathematics.

Despite this, the audience heard, Rachel has a successful job in the banking industry. Kathryn told her: “You are amazing. You are incredible.” The presenter revealed singer Daniel O’Donnell would be performing later, as Rachel dressed to do some Irish dancing.

Aside from all the singing and dancing and associated parades and festivities associated with the festival, which is open to females or those who identify as female aged between 18 and 29 who are Irish-born or of Irish origin, remains a huge money spinner for Kerry.

Each rose is said to be worth an estimated €200,000 to the economy of the town and surrounding areas - based on the fact that they will attract at least 200 close family members — including parents, brothers, sisters, and partners — along with relatives, friends to Tralee.

Friends and relatives across Ireland and even around the world will also make the trek, along with a cohort of festival fans from the county or country each rose represents.

It is estimated that these will all spend at least €1,000-a-head during the festival, and with this year’s number of roses being 32, that works out at €6.4m.

The year-round publicity from festival-related events, including the selection of each rose in Ireland and around the world, continuously promotes the town as a tourist and go-to destination.

After all the local, regional and national media appearances are accounted for, the sheer volume of publicity for Tralee, Kerry and Ireland from the festival alone is valued at up to €15m.

A big part of this will be the coverage afforded to the festival by RTÉ, with more than a million of viewers expected to have tuned in over Monday and Tuesday night, with the last night usually getting more than 500,000 viewers on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.