The 30 young women vying for the title of 2005 Rose of Tralee arrived in Kerry yesterday.
They had completed the first visit to the North, missing an appointment with Belfast's Lord Mayor on Thursday because of what a spokesman said was time constraints during a "packed" two days in the North.
"We simply could not get there in time," spokesman Ted Keane said of the missed appointment with Wallace Browne.
The smart money in Tralee yesterday was on science graduates.
Mayo's Aoibhoinn Ní Shuilleabháin (22), who has a first-class honours degree in theoretical physics, was still No 1 with the bookies. The native Irish speaker who loves singing and piano was attracting odds of 5/1 in some bookmakers.
Gillian Doyle (22) from Kildare, an honours graduate in experimental physics and an accomplished Irish dancer, was also attracting attention. Photographer Fiona Stokes, the Rose from Perth, Western Australia, was also high in the running.
Róisín Corry (25), a planning enforcement officer representing northwest England, was also proving popular.
The Roses and their escorts met briefly last night before the streets lit up, the marching bands signalled the opening of the festival and each Rose accompanied by her escort made a grand entrance at the glittering Rose ball, the high point of Kerry's social calendar.