Written By Seamus Mulligan
THE ROSE OF TRALEE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL IS HELD ANNUALLY IN COUNTY KERRY AND IS BASED ON THE LOVE SONG, ‘THE ROSE OF TRALEE’ BY WILLIAM MUCHINOCK, A 19TH CENTURY WEALTHY MERCHANT.
HIS LOVE FOR THE MAID, MARY O’CONNOR, WAS RESTRICTED BY THE BOUNDARIES OF SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES.
AFTER EMIGRATING TO INDIA, THE JOYS OF HIS RETURN TO IRELAND AND LOVE FOR MARY WERE DESTROYED WHEN, ONLY A FEW DAYS PRIOR TO HIS ARRIVAL HOME, MARY DIED OF TUBERCULOSIS.
HIS SONG, WHICH DESCRIBES MARY AS “LOVELY AND FAIR AS THE ROSE OF SUMMER” WITH A “TRUTH IN HER EYES EVER DAWNING” IS THE PREMISE OF THE ROSE OF TRALEE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL.
WITH ENTRY ORIGINALLY RESTRICTED TO KERRY NATIVES AND CALLED “THE FESTIVAL OF TRALEE” IT WAS SOON ALTERED TO “THE ROSE OF TRALEE” TO STRENGTHEN THE LINK WITH THE FAMOUS SONG AND BUILD AN INTERNATIONAL PROFILE WITH THE ACCEPTED ENTRY OF THOSE OF IRISH ANCESTRY FROM 1967.
TODAY, WOMEN FROM ALL OVER IRELAND, THE UNITED STATES, THE UNITED KINGDOM, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, DUBAI, LUXEMBOURG AND AUSTRALIA CAN ALL VIE TO BE THE WOMAN LIKENED TO THE BEAUTY OF THE ROSE OF THE SUMMER.