HOT FAVOURITE Dublin-born Queensland Rose Tara Talbot (27) was crowned the 2011 Rose of Tralee last night to the consternation of bookies and the delight of a packed Dome in Tralee.
Paddy Power confirmed they stood to pay out upwards of €50,000 when the brunette secondary school teacher, who is passionate about human rights and a massive Liverpool FC fan, took the crown from last years winner Clare Kambamettu.
Talbot’s father is from Dublin and her mother is from the Philippines. During her television interview Talbot, who wore a red satin ballgown, said “I love hake” in her mother’s language to impress fish loving host Dáithí Ó Sé last night and sang Mary Black’s “Katie”. She was, said one insider, “a safe pair of hands” for the 53rd title.
It was more of the same from Tralee last night. As host Ó Sé said earlier in the day in reference to his stage outfit, “you can put a goat in a tux but it’s still a goat.”
And on that note, you can try to spruce up the Rose of Tralee with a super cool artist like Imelda May but you are still going to have the Wexford Rose Mary Kehoe reciting a poem called My Dream in the Cow Houseor the Germany Rose Saoirse Fitzgerald blasting out a song called Das Fliegerleidcomplete with kindergarten actions. So, even with the Imelda on board and the Dublin R&B Rose Siobheal Nic Eodhaidh busting hip hop moves in a sparkly evening gown the Rose of Tralee is still a bit of an old goat.
An often entertaining and endearing one but a goat nonetheless. No kidding, it was mayhem in Tralee last night. There were ‘Dáithí For President’ banners waving in the packed Dome while the foyer of the Carlton Hotel was a riot of sequins and stilettos and all-ages debs dresses. Not to mention all the goats in tuxedos and everyone ooohing and aahhhing as the Roses and their escorts made the short walk to the tent for Round 2.
Rockabilly Queen Imelda May had packed her own unique brand of mayhem. A Rose of Tralee fan since childhood she reminisced about coming to the town decades ago with her parents who pitched tents down by the railway station.
“I love that it’s not about celebrity or money,” she said. “Most shows now are about big prizes or people wanting to be famous but everyone on this has a job to go back to. It’s just a brilliant week they will remember for the rest of their lives. I think that’s just so nice”.
The televised programme hasn’t had a big name music act for around 10 years. May’s presence was viewed by some as an attempt by RTÉ to spice up a format that is not exactly the critic’s favourite. Viewing figures for Monday night’s contest were down on last year, a drop that an RTÉ spokesperson said was only to be expected due to increased interest in Ó Sé’s debut performance in 2010.
The second half of Monday’s show secured 601,000 viewers, 104,000 fewer than the numbers who tuned for the same segment last year. But for the contest’s superfans, viewing figures are as irrelevant as the annual festival of Rose of Tralee Twitter bashing.
Sitting with a huge smile on her face waiting for the show to start was Claire Cullinane from Cobh, Co Cork who has been coming here for almost twenty years. “For me it’s a celebration of Irish femininity, it encompasses all that is great about Irish women, the whole Irish woman not just one aspect of them,” she said last night. “It used to be about smiley, happy Irish colleens now it’s about highly educated global ambassadors. Their personalities keep it fresh. The Rose of Tralee will never end”.
Ó Sé will be back as host, next year that’s one certainty. “I will be back, it’s in my contract anyway,”