Dáithí Ó Sé has to emulate Gaybo as trousers are endangered by Sydney Rose’s dancing shoes in a night of “mighty shtuff”
IT WAS a case of London calling for the second time in a row last night as 26-year-old Clare Kambamettu was crowned the 52nd Rose of Tralee.
The assistant psychologist was handed the crown by last year’s Rose of Tralee Charmaine Kenny, a woman who was last year’s London Rose and also – even spookier Rose coincidence – hails from Athy, Co Kildare the place Kambamettu calls home.
Kambamettu was hot favourite to win the contest with bookies obviously seeing the truth ever dawning in her dark eyes.
The new Rose owes her exotic name to her father who is from Hydrabad in India while her mother is from Co Kildare.
When she met new host Dáithí Ó Sé first she called him Mr Ó Sé because he used to teach in the boys school next door to hers.
Other important dinner party Rose trivia includes the fact that she likes Roald Dahl and she is teaching herself to play the digeridoo.
She didn’t play the instrument last night, but it was an evening of party pieces and pretty girls in the finest Rose of Tralee tradition. New host Dáithí “Mighty Shtuff” Ó Sé didn’t get a turn and said he’d been banned from singing by RTE because they didn’t want to pay for the copyright.
In the end he had to sing to fill the gap while the Sydney Rose Louise Lenihan put on her dancing shoes. “Mother of God I nearly burst my trousers,” said Ó Sé after he was forced to get down and help her with the straps in a throwback to the golden Gaybo days.
Ambassador for fish Ó Sé was in even better form for the second night of his presenting debut. He introduced us all his proud Mammy Caithlinn Ó Sé, a former contestant in the Chicago Rose contest, who was in the audience to watch the second night of her son’s performance.
“She is always the one who tells me if I look tired or fat, but she thinks I’ve done well so I’m happy,” he had told reporters earlier in the day.
Ding Ding. Round two in the War of the Roses who are always “lovely and fair” and never look a bit tired or fat. It’s probably against some secret Rose Code. War is probably a bit strong, mind you. In those heels the 32 women could only manage a smile-off to the death. Grin-related cheek spasms are a serious occupational hazard in these parts.
The final of the UK’s last ever Big Brother also climaxed last night but our homegrown 51-year-old reality television extravaganza is infinitely more gripping even if there isn’t quite so much gratuitous nudity except perhaps in some of the bars in Tralee at around 4am.
Where else would you get women telling stories about mixing thongs up with curling tongs (a deliciously awkward Rose moment last night). Or speaking Luxembourgish or Maori and playing the harp and bashing the bodhrán in ballgowns in a tent in front of 2000 people dressed up in their best gear? Or singing the Wild Rover in German, and doing a reel to the Man Down Under? Ok, so maybe gripping is the wrong word. But at least it’s ours. They have Davina. We’ve got Dáithí who, as it happens, insulted the hairstyle of a Rose’s mother last night. You’d never have caught Gaybo doing that.
Despite curiosity about the new presenter, viewing figures for the contest were down on last year when 748,000 tuned in for the 50th anniversary show which was held on a Tuesday night. It represents a 7 per cent drop in market share for Ó Sé and the Roses compared to this year’s Monday night’s show. An RTE spokeswoman said that because last year was the 50th anniversary it would be fairer to compare the figures from 2008 and that one in two TV sets in the Republic was tuned in to Monday’s programme at one point. Take that, Big Brother.