The Making Of A Rose

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Entertainment

Meet the Roses and find out what it's like to take part and to be a contender for the title of Rose of Tralee.

The first major event of the Festival of Kerry is the Rose Ball which is held six days before the Rose selection. The ball takes place in the Dome and for the first time, the thirty-two Roses are presented formally to the people of Tralee.

This report follows the story of 19-year-old Dublin Rose Anne-Marie Holland throughout the week in the lead up to the finale when the winning Rose is crowned. Anne-Marie attends a lunch with her family and members of the Bray Festival Committee. Following an interview with the Rose of Tralee judging panel, Anne-Marie tells RTÉ News how it went and says that she wouldn't like to be a judge as it's such a hard decision to make.

Each one of the Roses seem to have something very special, everything from a smile to something they say to make you feel comfortable.

We also meet Anne-Marie's boyfriend and escort Brendan Duggan who has his money on Anne Marie to win.

The Rose selection takes place over two nights and Anne-Marie was on night two and had a front row seat at the first night to see the first 16 contestants. The following night and it's time for Anne-Marie to meet Gay Byrne and take centre stage at the Dome in Tralee. Anne-Marie tells Gay about growing up in Bray, County Wicklow while giving the family pub 'Holland's Bar' a plug. She also has anecdotes about attending the Gaeltacht in the Aran Islands and tells Gay about her aspirations to be Taoiseach.

Ahead of the announcement of the winner, Anne-Marie describes how she thinks her interview with Gay went. The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here as the 1987 International Rose of Tralee is announced as Larna Canoy representing Chicago. Despite not taking the crown, Anne-Marie loved every minute of the competition and congratulates the winning Rose.