Ann Marie Mulholland, from upstate New York, and cousins Sean Leach and Siobhán Kelly, from Charlestown, Co Mayo were strolling through Tralee town on Sunday evening, cognisant of the fact that if it weren’t for the Rose of Tralee festival, they might never have met.
Ms Mulholland’s daughter – Kate Mulholland – represented New York in the Rose of Tralee in the summer of 2013, when they met their extended family.
“Every time I come back to Tralee, we get back together,” Ms Mulholland said, now attending her third festival.
Ms Mulholland is a coordinator at the New York and Florida Rose centres – she joined after that first trip in 2013. “I had such an amazing experience, that when I went back, I said ‘I need to be a part of this’.”
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It brings a lot of business ... and the pub business is dying so it brings a lot of business to them, and the hotels
The Rose of Tralee International Festival was gearing up on Sunday evening, with attendees soaking up the pinnacle of the Co Kerry town’s social and cultural calendar in thronged bars, céilí tents and busy streets.
The five-day festival, which began on Friday, culminates with the crowning of the Rose of Tralee in a live TV event on Tuesday evening.
Dáithí Ó Sé, the Rose of Tralee host since 2010, will present the live events from the Rose Dome, alongside Kathryn Thomas for the first time this year. In an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper, Mr Ó Sé revealed that he was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, earlier this year, but has since received the all-clear from his doctors.
The organisation of the festival is a year-long operation, according to Anthony O’Gara, chief executive of the Rose of Tralee International Festival. It all leads up to this week.
“The whole town ... will be a little bit manic – but in a positive way,” he said.
Storm Betty might have put a dampener on things facing into the weekend, but the weather hasn’t managed to quell the buzz around town, Johnny McElligott, who runs Seán Óg’s pub and guest house in the town. “We’ve been booked out since February for it.”
For Mr O’Gara, the festival’s key role hasn’t changed much over the decades. “It’s a celebration of Ireland ... it’s a celebration of all things traditional, in the sense of Irishness.”
“The tradition in Tralee is woven around the Irish diaspora and communities that have Rose centres around the world,” he added.
On Sunday evening, in a large marquee in Tralee’s Páirc an Piarsaigh, Mary Murphy was watching on as young and old swung through a set of the Ballyvourney Jig.
“We come every year,” Ms Murphy, from North Cork, said. “We’re seasoned Rose of Tralee people.”
She reckons that numbers at the festival are recovering post-Covid, and that this year, the festival is more accommodating to people of all ages – young and old. “I find the atmosphere and the energy better this year [than previous years],” Ms Murphy said.
Ms Murphy is following Megan Wolf, the German Rose, this year. Ms Wolf’s mother, Mairead O’Shea from Coachford, Co Cork, is a cousin of Ms Murphy’s.
For the town of Tralee itself, Mr O’Gara said, “there’s a commercial harvest aspect to [the festival]”.
“It brings a lot of business ... and the pub business is dying so it brings a lot of business to them, and the hotels,” Eileen Haq, a native of Tralee living in Manchester, said on Sunday evening while walking through the Town Park.
Rose week is easily the busiest of the year for businesses in the town, according to publican Mr McElligott. “It’s a very good festival to keep Tralee on the map,” he said.
Three Roses are twinned with his pub – New Zealand, South Australia and Dublin. “I might put a fiver on.”
With the Rose of Tralee festival is in full flow, the live television event – which centres around the 32 Roses representing different counties of Ireland and regions across the globe – kicks off on Monday evening, continuing on Tuesday.
