{"id":11816,"date":"2025-08-20T15:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/11816\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:07:07","slug":"katelyn-cummins-champions-women-in-trades-after-rose-of-tralee-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/11816\/","title":{"rendered":"Katelyn Cummins champions women in trades after Rose of Tralee win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Rose of Tralee<\/a> said she is delighted to raise awareness that women \u201cdon\u2019t need to go to college\u201d to succeed in life.<\/p>\n

Interviewed immediately after winning last night<\/a>, Katelyn Cummins was asked how she felt about the attention she has received as an apprentice electrician.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, the first-ever Rose of Tralee from Laois, said: \u201cI absolutely love it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s great to get the awareness out there that women can do whatever we want, and we don’t need a statement around (it).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t need to follow tradition by going to college or anything like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just, I think it’s amazing that I can just share that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI do hope to raise awareness about women doing whatever they believe they can do, and create awareness that we don’t need to go to college, we can do whatever we want to do, and we don’t need to follow anybody else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked what advice she would give her six-year-old self, she replied: \u201cBe confident in yourself and believe in yourself, and know that I’m going to be amazing in future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She agreed that labelling the Rose of Tralee festival as a Father Ted parody centred around a fictional ‘Lovely Girls’ competition is \u201cold hat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criticism of the festival as little more than a beauty pageant was raised on stage by RT\u00c9\u2019s Kathryn Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that the Rose of Tralee has been an amazing festival for the past 10 days for me and I made friends for life, and I think that’s what needs to be shared more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have such an incredible experience, and we’d make friendships for life, and we really, really do, and the experiences we have, the things we do, the people we meet, it’s an experience like no other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think there’s anything like the rose of tralee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"KatelynKatelyn Cummins has been named as the 2025 Rose of Tralee. Picture: Domnick Walsh \u00a9 Eye Focus LTD.<\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s about me, not my disability’<\/p>\n

Responding to comments on social media about her wearing what appeared to be a hearing aid during the festival, she told reporters at a press conference in Tralee\u2019s Rose Garden: \u201cI suppose having a hearing disability does have its challenges as well. But I wanted to make this experience about me and not about my disability, which was, I suppose, different for most people.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to make it about me, my personality and everything else, and not just about my disability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was also congratulated for flying the flag for female electricians, to which she replied, \u201cI\u2019m absolutely delighted to be able to represent women in the trade world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely incredible. I think I’m actually inspiring a lot of young girls, and hope to continue to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about her comments after winning the crown that women don\u2019t have to go to college to get ahead in life, she added: \u201cI just want to make it aware that most women can make that decision for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just very important that we are made aware of it and I think a lot of women really do think they do have to go to college.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was also asked if women should \u201creclaim beauty pageants\u201d as a celebration of women.<\/p>\n

She replied: \u201cI think women should be celebrated no matter what it is. I don’t think there is a personal preference, whether it could be a pageant or a rose. I think they’re all equally celebrating women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just amazing that women are so confident in themselves and they’re wanting to put themselves forward to be able to represent themselves, a community (and) their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘I just want to give them a hug’<\/p>\n

Katelyn, who was not one of this year\u2019s favourites, appeared shocked and began crying when her name was announced on Tuesday night at the Kerry Sports Academy at MTU.<\/p>\n

Her first words after being crowned were: \u201cOh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, she said she thought she was going to fall over in shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I was like, Oh my God,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thinking of my mum (and family) straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see them down in the crowd. I just want to give them a hug.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was presented with her sash by the 2024 Rose of Tralee, Kelly O’Grady, just before 11.30pm \u2014 becoming the 65th International Rose of Tralee.<\/p>\n

\n RT\u00c9\u2019s D\u00e1ith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9 and Kathryn Thomas announced the result live to audiences in Ireland and abroad, with viewers tuning in from countries including New Zealand, Mozambique, Canada, and the United States.<\/p>\n

As well as the title, she also won a world travel prize worth \u20ac25,000 and the use of a \u20ac40,000 Kia Niro<\/a> Plug-in Hybrid for a year.<\/p>\n

Katelyn is from the small village of Ballyouskill on the Laois-Kilkenny border.<\/p>\n

She grew up on a dairy farm and is currently in the third phase of her electrical apprenticeship with Alpha Drives Ltd. She hopes to pursue an engineering degree in the future.<\/p>\n

On the Rose of Tralee website, she describes herself as \u201can outgoing and adventurous individual who truly thrives on socialising and meeting new people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as winning two county finals playing camogie with her local club, she enjoys set dancing and jiving with her family and friends.<\/p>\n

She is also chairperson of the North Kilkenny Macra club, which she said has allowed her to meet new people and build connections across Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Rose of Tralee said she is delighted to raise awareness that women \u201cdon\u2019t need to go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,888],"class_list":{"0":"post-11816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-rose-of-tralee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}