Tralee is ‘a place where love is in the air’ as the Kerry festival returns once again
Waterford Rose Abby Walsh on stage at the Kerry Sports Academy with presenter Dáithí Ó’Sé. Photograph: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus Ltd– the one in the song – would make of the Rose of Tralee festival. She was, apparently, a 19th century maid who was in a relationship with her aristocratic boss William Pembroke Mulchinock before dying tragically. She wouldn’t make it through the first round of judging these days.
Electric Picnic 2024 highs and lows: Kylie has an ‘absolute moment’, drink-laden plastic-cup missilesSicily yacht sinking: One dead and six missing including British tech tycoon with Irish rootsPerth Rose Maria Collins with presenter Kathryn Thomas at the festival on Monday night. Photograph: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus Ltd
Earlier that morning, in the Meadowlands Hotel, as Roses wander about wearing ball gowns with runners, I meet Dáithí Ó Sé with executive producer Michael Kealy. Kealy’s job, Dáithí says is to constantly say: “We’re 10 minutes over” into Daithi’s earpiece. “Last year I said, ‘We’re 10 minutes over’ as he was getting onstage,” says Kealy.
Some Tralee residents are nostalgic for when the show was held in the centre of town and there was a black-tie ball and a race meeting and people camped in fields. “When nobody knew about the festival everyone wanted to come,” says my B&B host Tim O’Keeffe.The festival’s chief executive Anthony O’Gara, who is also recovering after a heart operation, says he’d like to see the festival handed back to some sort of consortium of local businesses in time.
Rose-Of-Tralee Nasa Simon-Harris
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