{"id":640594,"date":"2026-08-16T19:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640594\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:24:22","slug":"rose-of-tralee-2026-distant-diaspora-and-defeated-hopefuls-greet-competitors-in-parade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640594\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose of Tralee 2026: distant diaspora and defeated hopefuls greet competitors in parade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 20,000 people lined Tralee<\/a>\u2019s Denny Street on Saturday evening to catch a glimpse of the 32 International Roses hoping to be crowned the 2026 Rose of Tralee<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Among them were siblings Caroline and James Murphy from Canada, there to support their sister, Newfoundland and Labrador Rose Kathleen Murphy. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot very many people in Newfoundland know about the Rose of Tralee, but we have really strong ties to Ireland even though it has been 200 years since we have been here,\u201d Caroline said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about it today, and a lot of people \u2013 their Irish heritage is very close; it\u2019s like a mom or a dad … but we thought it was really interesting. The Newfoundland connection was so long ago, and it\u2019s an interesting portion of the diaspora that happened during the Famine. We are still very connected to our Irish roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewfoundlandNewfoundland and Labrador Rose Kathleen Murphy smiling at the introduction of the 2026 Roses of Tralee at St Helen’s Hotel, Dublin. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

How do the siblings explain the competition to their friends back home in Canada, who may be unfamiliar with the Rose of Tralee? <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a tough one,\u201d said James. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been explaining it to people that it is a pageant that involves the idea of bringing back Irish heritage to Ireland from the places where all the Irish diaspora ended up going to across the world recently, and much longer ago, like in Newfoundland. And so it involves bringing that part of Ireland back to the heart of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandy and Don Padgett, standing in a cluster of cowboy hat wearers, had travelled from Texas to support their daughter Ally. <\/p>\n

When explaining the competition to friends and family back home, Sandy said the couple tell them it is different from typical US beauty pageants. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey look at the different contributions of women differently from other contests that Americans might be familiar with, looking more at character and friendliness and how you get along with others. It is more about the interior character than simply what I look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saturday Moonlight Parade brought the 32 Rose of Tralee hopefuls into the town on floats in a procession that featured more than 100 performers. The parade kicked off with a Westlife vs Take That tribute concert, followed by music processionals from the nearby Kilorglin District Pipe Band, Donegal\u2019s Banna Ceoil Chloich Cheann Fhaola and performances from Fossett\u2019s circus. A message of support was broadcast from the main stage on Denny Street, paying tribute to the circus\u2019 ringmistress Marion Fossett, who died earlier this year aged 71. <\/p>\n

\"LornaLorna Stephens, Ailbhe Seoige and Kate Fahey supporting Galway Rose Jodie Kenny at the 2026 Rose of Tralee Competition <\/p>\n

Among the attendees were a group of women who had previously competed in the Galway Rose selection to represent the county, but, despite being unsuccessful, had made it to Tralee to support their one-time rival, Jodie Kenny. <\/p>\n

When asked if it was strange to support their former competition, Lorna Stephens, a final-year education student at Mary Immaculate College, said: \u201cOh no, but Jodie is just so stunning, she is the perfect Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Fahey, who works as a power crane operator, added: \u201cI think everyone enters it with the same goal. You kind of go into it hoping to make friends of the same mindset as you. When I went into it, I presume you were the same, [she nods at Stephens] it was so amazing to meet friends [who were] like-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group of women had brought a large banner with the primary schoolteacher\u2019s face on it reading \u201cBest of Luck Jodie\u201d, which they proudly held at the barricade of the Moonlight Parade. <\/p>\n

\"LornaLorna Stephens, Ailbhe Seoige and Kate Fahey supporting Galway Rose Jodie Kenny at the 2026 Rose of Tralee Competition <\/p>\n

Ailbhe Seoige, a l\u00e9ann an chumars\u00e1id agus aistri\u00fach\u00e1in (communications and translation) student at the University of Galway, said in Irish that Kenny \u201cis a great representative not just for the people of Connemara but also the people of Galway\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much support for her here, and I think that shows what a good person she is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The native Irish speaker said: \u201cWe\u2019re very thankful for her and we are very thankful we got to meet her at the selection. We are so proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Rose of Tralee airs on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player on Monday, August 17th, and Tuesday, August 18th, from 8pm, with a break for the Nine O\u2019Clock News before resuming at 9.35pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 20,000 people lined Tralee\u2019s Denny Street on Saturday evening to catch a glimpse of the 32…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,957,888,14233],"class_list":["post-640594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-rose-of-tralee","tag-tralee"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117106828934716572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640594","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=640594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}