No matter how you dress it up, the Rose of Tralee contest is just sexist

It was a Tuesday evening family dinner chat. Then someone mentioned the Rose of Tralee ‘beauty pageant’, which was on TV that night. It’s not traditionally quite as exciting as The Late Late Toy Show, but it is one of those occasions in the Irish calendar when parents meekly accept that children can stay up late to watch it.

I knew my place and wasn’t about to disagree. Unusually, I held my tongue.