Golden Jubilee Festival Celebrations in Full Swing

 

 

Upwards of 500,000 TV viewers watched the hour long documentary on the history of the Rose of Tralee Festival on Monday night and viewing numbers for last evening's presentation of the first 18 Roses was set to double this.  The 50th Rose of Tralee Festival has exceeded all expectations with visitors attending the festival and spending in the town well up on previous years according to Padraig McGillicuddy, Chairman of Holiday Tralee.  The Golden Jubilee Rose is set to be selected and crowned  about 11.30pm tonight (Wed).

 

The festival was officially opened to a fanfare of music, street entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display on Saturday evening. Thousands lined the streets of the Kerry capital on Saturday night for the festival parade along Castle Street to the stage at the end of Denny Street. The soft Kerry rain did not deter the enthusiastic supporters of the festival which is the biggest in years.  The 50 international roses  were greeted on stage by the Deputy Mayor of Tralee Cllr. Mairead Fernane, Managing Director Anthony O’Gara and the Judging Panel chaired by Daithi Ó Sé.  They were joined by 42 Roses of Tralee (1959-2009) who had travelled from all corners of the globe for the golden jubilee celebrations.

 

 

 

D/ Mayor Fernane in her address of welcome paid tribute to the small group of Tralee people who had planned the festival from a snug in Harty’s Bar back in 1959. She saluted all the rose contestants over the years and especially the Roses of Tralee who had represented Tralee, Kerry and Ireland proudly over five decades. She congratulated all those who had organised the festival over the years and the current managing director Anthony O’Gara and his team for their commitment to Ireland’s largest festival. She welcomed the Mayor of Westlake, Ohio Dennis Clough, who joined her stage, the visiting delegation from the Höchster Schlossfest in Frankfurt and the parents and supporters of the rose contestants. She conveyed the good wishes of Mayor Terry O’Brien who is recovering from illness in hospital.

 

Mr. O’Gara joined in the tributes to the Roses, Escorts, the Rose Centre Committees and sponsors, including Newbridge Silverware, the Carlton Hotel Group, Fáilte Ireland and Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE who had done so much to popularise the festival.  He said he felt privileged to have 42 of the 50 Roses of Tralee, with him for this happy occasion.   He singled out RTE broadcaster Gay Byrne and his wife Kathleen for special mention and thanked the people of Tralee and Tralee Town Council for their support.

 

Monday, 24 August

 

 

On Monday morning D/Mayor of Tralee Cllr. Mairead Fernane unveiled a bronze sculpture of the original Rose by sculptor Jeanne Rynhart in Tralee Town Park.  Tralee Pipe Band greeted the guests who included the Roses of Tralee, International Roses, the young Rose buds from around Kerry,  and members of the festival committees that have guided the world famous festival from 1959.  Town Clerk Michael Scannell said the new memorial was a fitting tribute to the original Rose of Tralee Mary O'Connor and her loved one - the song writer - William Pembroke Mulchinock and to the festival which had brought fame and prosperity to Tralee. It had been funded from the Council's Development Levy Fund, he said.

 

 

D/Mayor Mairead Fernane said the project was a collaboration of four Munster counties - it was conceived and planned in Tralee, modelled by Jeanne Rynhart at her studio in Ballylickey, Co. Cork and cast at the Connolly Bronze Art Foundry in Kilbaha, Co. Clare. The limestone plinth supporting it came from Killenaule, Co. Tipperary.

 

 

The memorial was blessed by the Dean of Kerry, Fr. Sean Hanafin, and Rev. Joe Hardy of the Church of Ireland.  The ceremony closed with the singing of the Rose of Tralee by local tenor Noel Heaslip, whose father Liam had serenaded the roses for forty years.

 

 

Later Tralee Town Council hosted a reception for the Roses and their families in the Siamsa Tíre Theatre where special presentations, designed by Audrey Elliott, were made to the Roses of Tralee and illustrated scrolls to the fifty international roses.  Bronze miniatures of the Rose Memorial were presented by D/Mayor Fernane to Anthony O'Gara, Managing Director, Rose of Tralee Festival,  Sculptor Jeanne Rynhart and Martina Kerins of Fáilte Ireland South West who had assisted in getting the sculpture project off the ground and were among the main sponsors of the festival.  Music for the occasion was provided by the traditional music group Oileán and Dave Hegarty on Uileann pipes.

 

The first Rose of Tralee Alice O'Sullivan from Dublin, who is one of the judges for the Golden Jubilee final, almost missed the ceremony but arrived just in time for a fitting tribute to her by D/Mayor Fernane.

 

 

Roses display their scrolls of welcome

 

 

 

D/Mayor of Tralee Cllr. Mairead Fernane greets the first Rose of Tralee Alice O'Sullivan

 

The festival continues this Wednesday with street entertainment in The Square and Part 2 of the Rose Selection which will be broadcast live on RTE 1 Television from the Topaz Dome at 8pm.  The name of the Golden Jubilee Rose should be known by midnight.  The new Rose will then be presented in Denny Street and heralded by a massive fireworks display. 

 

 The full festival Programme of Events can be viewed at:

 http://www.roseoftralee.ie/catalog/ksg.php/cPath/121_122?PHPSESSID=f9116ef5a8c4188f76d83a21b5972a12

 

Rose of Tralee Festival Website:

http://roseoftralee.ie

 

Pics courtesy of MacMonagle Photography, Killarney