Amid tears, cheers and waggling eyebrows from its host Dáithí Ó Sé, New Zealand’s Keely O’Grady has been named the 2024 International Rose of Tralee at the end of this year’s Rose of Tralee festival in Co Kerry.
“I can’t really put it into words. I’m shaking so much right now,” says O’Grady, a 21-year-old fourth-year student at the University of Canterbury, who is taking a degree in speech and language therapy. “What I’m most looking forward to is doing this for my country as an International Rose. We’ve only had two New Zealand Roses. It means a lot to me.”
It has been a memorable festival, with highlights including bagpipes, a rowing-machine contest featuring Ó Sé’s fellow host Kathryn Thomas, and Ó Sé himself waving cheerleader pompoms at a shocked audience. There is more where that came from (aside from the pompoms) as the second half of the contest (RTÉ One, Tuesday, 8pm) gets under way.
First up on night two is the Donegal Rose, Niamh Shevlin, an Irish dancer who has appeared in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and entered the contest as a tribute to her late aunt. She is followed by the Sligo Rose, Megan McCormack, a primary teacher and intercounty footballer from Gurteen, and then the London Rose, Glenna Mannion.
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Mannion’s interaction with Ó Sé is one of the more memorable in a generally dull opening half. It leads to an anecdote about Mannion’s sister meeting Pope Francis when he visited Ireland, in 2018, with viewers treated to a snap of said sibling kissing the pontiff on each cheek.
“Did she try to shift the pope?” Ó Sé wonders before Mannion reads the leaves from the mug of tea the MC has been chugging – and tips him as a future Late Late Show host. Either David Lynch has got back into film-making or it’s peak Rose of Tralee.
Later comes the New York Rose, Billie Cooper, who is originally from Cavan but lived in Singapore and China before her family moved to the United States. She tries to teach Ó Sé Chinese, with what might be described as middling results.
The Roscommon Rose, Rachel Hastings, is first up after the break for the news – and talks about her budding career as an education influencer on Instagram. The Yorkshire Rose, Clídna Bailey-Doyle talks about the importance of her Irish identity and confirms she would cheer Ireland over England in soccer. Later the Westmeath Rose, Grace O’Connor, recites a moving poem dedicated to her late brother, Ryan.
As we await the verdict there is an unusual musical interlude featuring Sharon Shannon collaborating with the TikTok star Garron Noone – which culminates with everyone on stage shouting “diddly-doo” simultaneously, followed by Thomas presenting Shannon with a cut-out Ó Sé. (It’s tempting to crack a joke about it having the same cardboard content as the real thing.)
You could cut the tension with Ó Sé’s quiff as the winner is announced. As they wait, the only thing viewers can do is strap in and soak up the excitement, the pompoms and Ó Sé trying to say Tralee in Chinese and almost causing an international incident along the way.
