IT WAS A case of skirts and umbrellas askew in a windswept Killarney yesterday as the entrants for this year’s Rose of Tralee festival had an early walkabout in the Kingdom.
Teetering mostly on three-inch heels and sporting short skirts, the 32 roses took to the cobbles of the Victorian mansion of Muckross House.
The roses, who are honouring the memory of a Victorian love story based on a cobbler’s daughter might have been surprised to hear they were following in the footsteps of another group of famous ladies albeit caged in crinoline, corseted, and bonneted in the same mansion in the same week 150 years ago.
Queen Victoria and her ladies spent two nights at Muckross in the last week of August 1861 after arriving in Killarney by train.
The arrival of this year’s roses was a homecoming of sorts for Washington rose Dorothy Henggeler (25), whose mother Eileen Moriarty hails from Killarney town and who left for the United States at least 30 years ago.
The dark-haired Ms Henggeler, in a pink lace dress, who works in communications, was overwhelmed by the reception from locals and relatives, she said.
She is accompanied to Ireland by her mother Eileen, her father Dick and brother Franz.
After lunch in Killarney it was off to Tralee where the roses were matched with their escorts before one of the major social events of the festival week: the Rose of Tralee ball.
Communications manager for the Rose of Tralee International Festival John Drummey said that the festival, which was now in its 53rd year, was on a sound financial footing, after experiencing difficulties some years ago.
The festival – inspired by the love song, beginning “The Pale Moon was rising” which was written by a well-to-do Tralee man on the death of his beloved Mary O’Connor – accounted for the busiest tourist week of the year in Tralee.
Plans were in train for a permanent centre in Tralee, which will combine an exhibition space, Mr Drummey said, adding that the town’s 1,100 bedrooms were almost all sold out yesterday, along with accommodation in outlying areas.
Last year, the two televised shows – hosted by television presenter Daithí O’Sé attracted record audiences, and the final night – with over one million viewers (1,074,500) was RTÉ 1’s most-watched show.
O’Sé – who has become engaged to a former contestant of the competition, 2008 New Jersey rose Rita Talty – will again host this year’s show on Monday and Tuesday.