{"id":12368,"date":"2025-08-20T21:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12368\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T21:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:13:07","slug":"rose-of-tralee-winner-katelyn-cummins-delighted-to-represent-women-in-trades-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12368\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose of Tralee winner Katelyn Cummins \u2018delighted\u2019 to represent women in trades \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newly-crowned Rose of Tralee<\/a> discovered a love of working with electrics while on Transition Year work experience.<\/p>\n

Katelyn Cummins (20), an electrical apprentice<\/a>, said she is \u201cabsolutely delighted\u201d to represent women in the trade world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I am inspiring a lot of girls and I hope to continue to do so,\u201d said the Laois<\/a> Rose, who is in the third phase of her apprenticeship with Alpha Drives Ltd, which designs and manufactures gearboxes and other electrics.<\/p>\n

Some commentators on social media said it was good to have a Rose of Tralee who not only worked in a traditionally male-dominated field but was also a successful young women who wears a hearing aid. <\/p>\n

Speaking about this, she said: \u201cI suppose having a hearing disability has its challenges but I wanted to make this experience about me, not my disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her parents, Noel and Siobhan Cummins, are dairy farmers in Ballyouskill on the Laois-Kilkenny border. <\/p>\n

The Laois Rose took home the honour on Tuesday night at the Tralee Dome, Co Kerry. The title was conferred to Ms Cummins by the reigning Rose Keely O\u2019Grady from New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by journalists and flowers in Tralee Town Park, the electrical apprentice looked remarkably bright considering she was running on 20 minutes of sleep. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the [the roses] were only going to sleep when I was getting up,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rose of Tralee 2025: What does the winner get and what must she do during her year\u2019s reign?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"'It’s‘It\u2019s amazing to feel so supported by a female and girl power energy.’ Photograph: Domnick Walsh\/ Eye Focus LTD <\/p>\n

The Ballyouskill native said she has two years left in her apprenticeship, after which she hopes to spend a couple of years travelling, before returning to Ireland to complete an engineering degree. <\/p>\n

Some of her travel plans will be realised sooner than she originally thought, with a \u20ac25,000 travel bursary included as part of her Rose of Tralee winnings.<\/p>\n

Ms Cummins said she was looking forward to \u201cmaking new experiences and the memories of a lifetime\u201d. She wants to travel the world, see different cultures and meet new people. <\/p>\n

She has not declared any destination yet, saying she will go \u201cwherever the Rose of Tralee international festival takes me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her status as the first ever Laois winner of the competition was news to Ms Cummins, who said: \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. It\u2019s all the more amazing to have the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rose of Tralee 2025 review: Another batch of warm, likeable overachievers makes for slightly plodding TVOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ms Cummins added that working in a predominantly male environment meant the Rose of Tralee gave her \u201ca great opportunity\u201d to embrace her \u201cfeminine side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been so refreshing\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have got so much more confidence and empowerment from the other girls. It\u2019s amazing to feel so supported by a female and girl power energy. It\u2019s just been very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was my true self, most definitely, on that tour. I am so excited to have 31 new girlfriends now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She paid particular homage to Wexford Rose Cl\u00edona O\u2019Leary, who also comes from a farming background, saying they got on \u201clike a house on fire\u201d. <\/p>\n

The highlight of Ms Cummins\u2019s festival was \u201cjiving with the Wexford Rose Cl\u00edona\u201d. <\/p>\n

Another highlight came in the form of the Saturday night Moonlight Parade, when she welled up at the sight of \u201cso many people I never knew were coming down to Tralee\u201d. <\/p>\n

If she could send a message to her younger self, it would be: \u201cBe confident in yourself, believe in yourself and know that you are going to be amazing in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The newly-crowned Rose of Tralee discovered a love of working with electrics while on Transition Year work experience.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,11763,888,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-12368","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-laois","13":"tag-rose-of-tralee","14":"tag-work"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12368","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=12368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}