Thunderstorms that earlier raged in the town of Tralee had subsided by the time Dáithí Ó Sé and the 2024 Rose were towed into view.
Waving from a glittering makeshift balcony on wheels, Ó Sé and Kiwi Keely O’Grady sat next to the Sam MaGuire Cup, which Kerry claimed last month as All-Ireland winners.
“Welcome to President of Ireland Daíthí Ó Sé ... Oh wait, that will be next year,” said MC Brian Hurley.
Sunday’s Moonlight Parade event featured performances from Minnesota’s Govenaires Drum and Bugle corps, circus members on stilts and, of course, elevated platforms for the Roses to wave from. They were surrounded by dancing escorts.
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The parade is a highlight of the festivities of the Rose of Tralee, with thousands attending every year.
In advance of the event, the mother of Ottawa Rose Aidan Russell was feeling positive about her daughter’s prospects in the contest.
“A bird pooped on my head; I think that’s good luck. I swear it,” said Tracy Woodcock Russell, who arrived early to make sure she had a place at the front of the barricade ahead of the parade.
“Aidan’s father passed in December of last year and that’s probably his idea of a joke,” she added, showing a four-leaf clover and a key chain with a finger print of her late husband as good luck charms.
On her daughter’s participation in the Kerry contest, she said: “Proud doesn’t even cover it.”
Her daughter, who has been accepted to work in the Canadian foreign service as a diplomat, would make the perfect Rose, Ms Woodcock Russell added, as she considers the competition to be “like a pageant but more of a cultural ambassador role”.
Also flying in from Canada are Kieron and Lorraine Hoare, parents of the Toronto Rose, Rachel Hoare.
“It is a festival, not a pageant,” said Mr Hoare.
He said he has been showing his daughter Ireland, but the Rose of Tralee teaches a “cultural perspective of all the counties and the different jigsaw puzzle pieces of Irish culture around the world”.
“It’s about coming together and celebrating it. It’s magnificent,” he said.
Evie Lynn Kelly, cousin of Fermanagh Rose Caoimhe Connolly, said the festival is “just tremendous for the county”.
Ms Connolly should be crowned the Rose because is a “lovely girl” and “it would be great if Fermanagh won something like this”, said Ms Kelly, adding: “We never win anything.”
Selena Greene said her sister, Longford Rose Sara-Lee Greene, should be the Rose of Tralee because “she’s a bit of craic”.
In the nearby Tralee town park, by the rose garden, two middle-aged Australians are giddy as teenagers, recreating the pose of the Rose of Tralee statue.
Former Rose Nyomi Horgan, from Perth, and her partner Alex Blain are attending the festival 30 years on from her win.
“Back in 1995, I was a uni student and I wanted to see the world. For a long time family had talked about the Rose of Tralee and I thought: ‘Well if I enter this thing and become the Perth Rose, I get to go to Ireland. Wouldn’t that be fantastic!’
“Next minute I have a sash and a crown and I am really seeing the world as the Rose of Tralee.”
Being the Rose of Tralee is a “great privilege”, said Ms Horgan.
When describing what the Rose of Tralee is, the Perth native said the contest is a “special sorority of accomplished and purposeful women”.
“Whether that’s feminism, I will leave that definition to you, but there’s power in women being supported by each other and going out there and doing what they are called to do,” she said.
Has she any tips for the women competing this year? Authenticity, she said, is “the secret to winning”.
