Bookies favourite Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin from Carnacon, Co Mayo, was crowned the 2005 Rose of Tralee in the Dome last night.
Aoibhinn, who holds a theoretical physics degree from University College Dublin, had planned to continue her post graduate studies in biophysics but said last night she would defer that for a year.
The fluent Irish speaker and sean nós singer charmed the crowd with her rendition of Summerfly, the song made famous by Maura O'Connell.
Aoibhinn was comfortable before the cameras, having been a child star of sorts on Talent on the Telly at the age of 11.
After the result was announced she said what she needed was a cup of tea. "I'm in shock. It's like a dream. I really paid no attention to the odds."
In fact she claimed all the attention from the bookies was as a result of her nine uncles placing bets on her all week. One of her uncles, Francis Hughes, described her last night as "a grand girleen. Sure she couldn't miss it."
Over two evenings the roses proved a show that had been written-off as dated, patronising and irrelevant, contained more wit, life and talent than an entire season of You're a Star.
Many of the roses made light of their considerable academic accomplishments, one did a samba, another a belly dance, a few did jigs, one sang opera (gloriously), while others tried their hand at jazz, ballads and a few hilariously tuneless home-made ditties.
They bantered with host Ray D'Arcy who treated them as buddies rather than the proverbial lovely girls of Father Ted fame. In the Dome before the show went on air, D'Arcy raised a laugh by appealing to the 2,000 strong audience (of which about 1,300 paid €40 a head) to show him love for the sake of his mother watching at home in Kildare. The night before, he asked them to welcome him like a long lost cousin or brother. Either way, they deemed him a hit, the right man for a new era.
It was the end of an exhausting thrilling and emotional road for a bunch of women thrown into a situation where for a few days, merely stepping off a bus causes crowds to gather. "You get up in the morning and get a clap from 30 men. You have little kids crying because you signed an autograph," says Clare's Blathnaid O'Donoghue (the opera singer), explaining how far from their grounded lives these girls are briefly lifted.
Leitrim's Pamela Bourke, who provided added value in being a lock-keeper's daughter (and a mean version of Mack the Knife), laughs wryly about the day all the Roses met : "It was 'I'm a physicist' and 'I'm a doctor' and 'I'm a lawyer' and 'I'm a molecular biologist' and there was me - 'Oh, I'm a lock-keeper's daughter'. Your little arts degree begins to look a bit lame."