{"id":645316,"date":"2026-08-19T11:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645316\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T11:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:13:10","slug":"rose-of-tralee-review-westmeath-winner-is-a-good-news-story-from-a-creaky-event-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645316\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose of Tralee review: Westmeath winner is a good-news story from a creaky event \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is the Rose of Tralee<\/b><\/a> (RT\u00c9 One<\/a>, Monday, Tuesday) in the year 2026? Not a beauty pageant, not the patriarchal Gay Byrne<\/a>-kitsch fest of antiquity, not a talent contest \u2013 despite the expectation, nay, demand, that all the Roses arrive on stage with a party piece locked and loaded. The only thing that can be said with much certainty is that, for better or worse, it is uniquely Irish \u2013 toe-curling in places, tearjerking in others.<\/p>\n

It is also very, very long. Before Westmeath Rose Caoilfhinn N\u00ed Choiligh is crowned this year\u2019s winner<\/a>, the contest unfolds across two sprawling evenings featuring 32 Roses and a running time of more than four hours.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s longer than many of us have to spare, and for those professionally obliged to sit through every minute, the Rose of Tralee quickly blooms into a fever dream of gowns and gags. As your attention wanders, it feels like you\u2019re trapped in a hall of mirrors, with every reflection that of maniacally avuncular co-host and professional Kerryman D\u00e1ith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He is joined once again by Kathryn Thomas<\/a>, who is becoming more personable as a co-presenter, though still lacking \u00d3 S\u00e9\u2019s madcap energy. But the broadcast is carried by the Roses, who understand that, in their time in the spotlight, they are required to zip through their educational and career accomplishments (which tend to be considerable), give a shout-out to family waving banners at the back of the room and then perform a jig\/recite a poem\/play saxophone while spinning on their heads.<\/p>\n

On and on it goes, and it\u2019s the moments that tug at the heartstrings that keep the viewer engaged. Cork Rose Lexi Linnane pays tribute to her mother, who died as a result of a stroke; Galway Rose Jodie Kenny explains how the death of her mother led to her raising funds for a cancer charity; Dublin Rose Suad Mooge discusses her encounters with racism (\u201cI\u2019m not going to give power to those opinions\u201d).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m actually speechless\u2019: Westmeath woman who shared alopecia journey crowned Rose of Tralee 2026Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The winner, Mullingar native N\u00ed Choiligh, has had her own experience of adversity, having developed alopecia at age 15. Now 25, she has established a support group for those experiencing life-altering hair loss and is training as a wig maker. Her victory is the sort of good-news story on which the modern-day Rose of Tralee thrives \u2013 and, oddly, proof that this creaky light entertainment institution is at its most compelling when it plays it straight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is the Rose of Tralee (RT\u00c9 One, Monday, Tuesday) in the year 2026? Not a beauty pageant,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[1180,18,117,19,17,5202,957,888,1181,14233],"class_list":["post-645316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-daithi-o-se","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kathryn-thomas","tag-kerry","tag-rose-of-tralee","tag-rte","tag-tralee"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117121882982908829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645316","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=645316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}