43rd Rose of Tralee Festival Gets Underway

Minister O'Donoghue was joined on stage by Millennium Rose of Tralee, Róisín Ryan Egenton and Festival President, Kevin McCarthy at 9:30pm in the calm, warm autumnal evening to officially declare the Festival open, switch on the Festival lights and set off the first fireworks display of the 5-day festivities. It was a low-key opening but what did the crowds care as most were waiting for the main event of the evening, the performance of Australian band, INXS, who appeared on stage precisely at 10 o'clock and thrilled their fans (and others who didn't quite know what to expect from a band that seemed to have been in hibernation for a number of years, but lived up to expectations in their heart-pounding musical prowess).

Memorabilia Exhibition

County Librarian Kathleen Browne received deserved praise for putting together the fascinating range of material that makes up this nostalgic trek through the years of the Festival of Kerry. From Souvenir programmes, photographs and newspaper articles, the Exhibition is full of memories for those who remember the Festivals themselves and they provide an historical record of the changes in Irish culture and social attitudes from the very start of the Festival in the late 1950's. And it was fitting that, on Saturday morning last, the man in whose pub in Tralee the concept of the Rose of Tralee Festival was born in 1958, Roger Harty enjoyed a banter with Donie Kelly from Chapel Street.

Talk turned to the Fleadh Ceoil taking place in Listowel at the same time as the Rose Festival and someone asked how many pubs Tralee had versus Listowel. Roger said that, in his opinion, Tralee has 75 pubs and Listowel has almost the same, although it is a much smaller town. Donie remembered being able to buy 24 pints for a pound back in the 1940's (when a pint cost the equivalent of 10p and there being 240p in the pound way back then, almost thirty years before the introduction of decimal currency. Donie's friends from Boston were enthralled.

A lady who had other things on her mind besides drink was young Ciara Delaney from Tralee, who was attending the Exhibition with her mother and she was intent on getting as many autographs of the new Roses as possible. 22-year old Waterford Rose,Clare Sheriff, who works in the Trustee Savings Bank in Waterford and who has her sights in studying Media and Photography was delighted to interrupt her hectic schedule to pose for a photograph with Ciara and issue her signature for posterity! Clare said that she would love to work in television ... but we're sure to hear more about that on Monday night in front of the real thing.

n the meantime, the Texans were making an impact again as always (remember the huge numbers of Texans in town last year - with their stetsons?) ... well there was a stetson around this year - aptly worn by Texas Rose, Maura Brown and she definitely succeeded in turning some heads on Saturday morning. As she is an accomplished step-dancer there's sure to be great interest in her performance with compere Marty Whelan during the live TV Selection interview next week. Just imagine ... a red-headed gal wearing a stetson doing an Irish jig in the Dome ... Unmissable!