the Rose of Diddly Dum Aye-Ville

I've lived in Dublin, Ireland all my life so I know a thing or two about businesses and money makers stripping down our culture, simplifying it and making it marketable to the masses of tourists that visit the rip off republic. But seeing American tourists parading around our beautiful city in XXL Aran island jumpers is only the beginning. The dreaded Rose of Tralee. The ultimate saturation of Plastic Paddy wishy washy 'oirish' culture. And available to anyone it seems, who wants to buy into this yone who buys into the diddly o'diddly aye culture.

I know a few people who have applied to be Roses and plastered it all over facebook.
And I've kept silent until now.

I still cannot understand why they bother to broadcast it on Irish television anymore.
Is watching Mary Catherine O'Yank reciting a beautiful 'wee' poem about the green hills of Ireland while convincing Daithí O'Se about the legitimacy of her 'Irishness' and ethnicity your idea of a good time? Television licence money well spent again, RTE.

My favourite part of the 'festival'*?

Watching the glassy eyed parents and family members in the audience as they look on proudly as their daughter becomes the new walking advertisement for Newbridge jewellery and the other generic sponsors.

The most accurate and perhaps only honest depiction of the contest was portrayed on an episode 'Father Ted', in form of 'The Lovely Girl contest':


People will always stand by the argument that this 'Festival' generates a lot of money for Irish tourism. And to that, I shall say this.

Do we really need and/or want a glorified beauty pageant to be one of our 'selling points'?

Do we really need to endure much more of this nonsense?

This pageant should have been buried somewhere in the last century, where it belongs. 

* = glorified beauty pageant