Roses have had their day. But with leadership they could bloom again

THE Rose of Tralee Festival is in financial trouble again. “What else is new?” they were asking facetiously on the RTÉ news.

The festival has attracted more than its share of publicity in recent years, often for the wrong reasons. But much of this is because it was so successful for so long.

It began back in 1957 when some businessmen had the idea of holding a carnival to boost the annual three-day race meeting in Tralee. A couple of years later a few of them came up with the bright idea of calling it the Festival of Kerry and selecting a Rose of Tralee as the centrepiece. This was based on a pageant that was held in the town in 1939 and 1940, but it had been discontinued because of the Second World War.