Murphy’s Pigs are proud to sponsor Rebecca Wray in this years’ Queensland Rose of Tralee. Born in Australia, Rebecca spent most of her life growing up in Limerick, Ireland. Rebecca returned to Australia a few years back and is working as a Wildlife Warrior at the Australia Zoo, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The Rose of Tralee International Festival is an international event which is celebrated among Irish communities all over the world. The festival, held annually in the town of Tralee in County Kerry, takes its inspiration from a 19th-century ballad of the same name about a woman called Mary, who because of her beauty was called “The Rose of Tralee”.
The festival is held every August to choose a young woman to be crowned the Rose. The winner is the woman deemed best to match the attributes relayed in the song: “lovely and fair”. She is selected on the basis of personality and should be a good role-model for the festival and ambassador for Ireland during her travels around the world. It is not a beauty pageant and the participants (Roses) are not judged on their appearances but on their personality and suitability to serve as ambassadors for the festival. The festival bills itself as a celebration of the “aspirations, ambitions, intellect, social responsibility and Irish heritage” of modern young women.
Each of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland selects a Rose, and the international Roses, chosen from around the world, also participate in the qualifying rounds now staged in the Festival Dome in Tralee. Ultimately, 32 Roses are selected to appear in the televised selection finals on Irish TV out of whom one is crowned the Rose of Tralee.
There have been three Australian ladies who have won the Rose of Tralee. Two of them have been Queenslanders. The selection of the Queensland Rose will be held on Saturday, the 4th of June.
We wish Rebecca, our lovely and fair Rose, all the best.