{"id":28391,"date":"2023-08-24T10:58:37","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T14:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=28391"},"modified":"2023-08-24T10:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T14:58:39","slug":"from-rose-to-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=28391","title":{"rendered":"From Rose To Role Model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Rose Of Tralee Story As Told By A Former Rose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Aoibhinn N\u00ed Sh\u00failleabh\u00e1in (Rose Of Tralee International Festival)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Deborah Schull<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 2005. A phone call from Carnacon, County Mayo, rang down the hall of the University College Dublin dormitory. It was for Aoibheann N\u00ed Sh\u00failleabh\u00e1in, a fire-engine-red-haired, tongue-pierced, 22-year-old student of Theoretical Physics. Aoibheann detected a sheepish tone in her father\u2019s voice when he said, \u201cYou\u2019ve to fill out some forms for the Mayo Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems he\u2019d gone and entered her name in County Mayo\u2019s Rose competition, the first step on the road to national glory: coronation as Ireland\u2019s Rose at the (formerly named) Rose of Tralee Festival, held each year in County Kerry since 1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aoibheann was mortified\u2014and not a little bit angry. \u201cLook, I\u2019ve got my finals and that\u2019s much more important than anything else,\u201d she said. Perhaps an even deeper reason underlay that one, evinced by her admission years later: \u201cI was never considered a \u2018girly girl.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had she known the competition\u2019s history, Aoibheann might have been more willing. The festival had evolved over the years from a beauty pageant for young Irish women to an international festival celebrating the \u201caspirations, ambitions, intellect, social responsibility, and Irish heritage\u201d of young women from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girly girl or not, Aoibheann gave in. \u201cI was basically doing it to humor my dad,\u201d she explains or, perhaps, rationalizes. She then agreed to a formal interview. \u201cI was just going to go in and chat. . . . I was just so relaxed about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it was her mam\u2019s turn to be mortified because, as Aoibheann said, \u201cI didn\u2019t buy anything new, and I wasn\u2019t wearing high heels or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wouldn\u2019t you know the studious Aoibheann breezed through the interview, enjoying her few moments on stage \u201cbecause I was talking about my degree and everything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point she remembers thinking \u201cthis has been an interesting experience, and it will end here, and that will be fine.\u201d Which is why she still vividly recalls her surprise when they called her name as the winner of the Mayo Rose and gave her marching orders to go down to Tralee and compete in the final, national pageant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And an invisible line was drawn in the sand of her life. \u201cIt was at that point that I decided \u2018Right, I\u2019m representing my county at this major international festival.\u2019 So I took out my tongue piercing, and I spent some time buying dresses and shoes and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, it was time to be a \u2018girly girl.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 23rd August, 2005, Aoibheann was crowned the 47th Rose of Tralee at an event watched over two nights by 75% of Ireland\u2019s television audience. By now more open to fortuitous surprises, she took a leap of faith and deferred graduate school for a year to tour Ireland and the world as an Irish Rose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out she had the time of her life\u2014and took many life lessons from that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you go abroad and you\u2019re the representative from Ireland with other people from the Irish community, it\u2019s really important that you take that responsibility, that you talk to people, that you remind them of Ireland\u2014of the values you hope you\u2019re representing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let them speak to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we often joke about, when you meet someone of Irish descent, and they say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m the O\u2019Sullivans from County Cork.\u2019 And you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, there\u2019s lots of O\u2019Sullivans in County Cork.\u2019 But, do you know what? It\u2019s really important that we ask and we make sure people can find that link and that route to Ireland. I think it\u2019s something that as a country we do very differently. There\u2019s apparently 80 million people of Irish descent around the world, and I think it\u2019s important we value those people and we acknowledge that \u2018Yes, they are Irish as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aoibhinn N\u00ed Sh\u00failleabh\u00e1in is known as an outstanding academic, broadcaster, and STEM education advocate; she also toured internationally as lead singer of the Irish traditional band Rag\u00fas. And it all started with the Rose of Tralee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Schull is an award-winning writer and producer. She founded Cultural Roadmapp, a startup producing Road Trip: Ireland, a 7-part series of cultural heritage audio tours for Wild Atlantic Way road trips. This article draws from interviews recorded by Dr Leah Bernini Cronin (president) for Kerry, part 2 of the series.<\/em><\/p>\n

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