{"id":8143,"date":"2025-08-18T23:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/8143\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T23:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T23:25:12","slug":"i-swear-to-god-it-was-the-hardest-work-i-have-ever-done-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/8143\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I swear to god it was the hardest work I have ever done\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kicking off at 8pm this evening on RT\u00c9 1, 32 Roses and escorts will take the stage at MTU\u2019s Sports Academy in Kerry for this year\u2019s Rose of Tralee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The variety show\/beauty pageant\/lovely girl competition\u2019s first selection night will see 18 roses performing, followed by another 14 taking to the stage tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

The winning Rose will be announced at the end of tomorrow night\u2019s broadcast. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rose of Tralee judge Dr Clare Kambamettu: A \u2018tiny but loud minority\u2019 drives racism in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Andy Rodgers was named the 2025 Rose Escort of the Year. The 30-year-old firefighter from Rathfarnham, who was escorting UAE rose Ceiline O\u2019Meara, was among 32 escorts at the event. <\/p>\n

Radio and social media star Carl Mullan, who is performing the role of master of ceremonies at the 2025 Rose of Tralee Festival, says being an escort in the 2016 iteration was \u201cthe hardest work I have ever done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember you\u2019d get to bed at 2 o\u2019clock in the morning having just been fulfilling your escort duties and then you would be up at 7 o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d the 2FM host says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone thinks you are off having the craic in town \u2013 but I remember thinking: \u2018Where is the time for this? There is none!\u2019”<\/p>\n

Mullan acted as an escort for both the 2016 Donegal Rose and the Scotland Rose, as that year the organisers hosted 65 Roses from each Rose Centre rather than the customary 32 which rotate among Rose Centres. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to work on the Nikki and Jenny show on 2FM as a reporter and we did a segment called Crash Test Dummy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to do all kinds of everything. I ate the world\u2019s hottest chicken wings, I did a downhill ice-skating event, I did a downhill mountain-biking race. I would throw my hat into anything and as a joke one year it came up in conversation: \u2018You should try and apply to be a Rose escort and see how far you get.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI went as an escort\/reporter in 2016, but listen, I was a fully fledged escort. Let me tell you everyone thinks that those lads are down here for a jolly and that they are doing nothing. I did it once, never again. It was way too much work than I was able for. I was exhausted after dealing with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I had cancer but was sent home with paracetamol\u2019: The 2025 Roses on their health historiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, in spite of his hard work, the presenter looks back on his time as an escort fondly: \u201cIt was lovely getting to know all the people and seeing the inner workings of the Rose of Tralee. I only knew it as a TV show but actually coming down and realising it is a festival and that there is such a community element to it; the parades and seeing the joy that it brings to people, was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should always make space for something like that,\u201d Mullan says.<\/p>\n

Like the Sistine Chapel<\/b><\/p>\n

Hailing from San Francisco, Leo McFadden is thoroughly enjoying his experience as an escort. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard to describe [being an escort] without experiencing it. It\u2019s like going to a major historical site like the Sistine Chapel: you walk in to the room, you can\u2019t really describe the feeling but when you go in there it is incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that hits you in a way that you can\u2019t experience without doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the best way I can describe it honestly,\u201d says the security contractor. <\/p>\n

\"LeoLeo McFadden the 2025 escort of the Queensland Rose <\/p>\n

Mr McFadden was inspired by his sister who was the 2023 San Francisco Rose, saying \u201cseeing it from a third-person view was absolutely incredible\u201d. <\/p>\n

In terms of how he views the role of escort, Mr McFadden says: \u201cIf the roses are the flowers, I think we [the escorts] are the stem. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do what we can to support them so they can flourish, and each rose is unique. Each escort has to have a unique approach to do that, but it\u2019s an absolutely once-in-a-lifetime experience. I wouldn\u2019t trade it for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also from California is Seamus Ruiz-Earle, a venture capitalist and the escort to the 2025 Luxembourg Rose. <\/p>\n

Mr Ruiz-Earle says he stumbled on the festival \u201cout of the blue\u201d while visiting family in Kildare in August last year. He looked up what was happening in Ireland during that month and came across the Rose of Tralee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I did research, the more I wanted to be involved and being an escort seems like the best possible way to do that,\u201d the chief executive says. <\/p>\n

\"SeamusSeamus Ruiz Earle, escort of the 2025 Luxembourg Rose <\/p>\n

In terms of trying to describe the festival to American friends, Mr Ruiz-Earle says: \u201cNo one understands. From an American perspective, there isn\u2019t anything like it.\u201c <\/p>\n

However, the appeal of being an escort for the Forbes 30 Under 30 tech alum is in making connections with Irish people his own age, rather than just family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come back two or three times a year to visit family but I\u2019ve never had friends in the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to call each of the 32 lads, and now the 32 Roses friends, is really something that I look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he is also excited to be \u201cable to shoot a message into a group chat and go out and have a great time when I\u2019m back in the country and make even more memories\u201d.<\/p>\n

With so many young men keen to apply to be escorts, would there ever be an argument for a gender-flipped Rose of Tralee?<\/p>\n

Mullan says that such a competition would \u201cprobably a lot less inspiring\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut listen maybe they should give it a go. I can guarantee I would not be applying to take part in that myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kicking off at 8pm this evening on RT\u00c9 1, 32 Roses and escorts will take the stage at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,957,888],"class_list":{"0":"post-8143","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-kerry","13":"tag-rose-of-tralee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8143","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=8143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}