The Executive Chairman of the Rose of Tralee festival, Anthony O'Gara, has said it was "wrong" to include footage of 33 Roses being told that they had not made it through to the live TV shows during last week's behind the scenes documentary on RTÉ One.
There has been criticism of Road to the Dome since it aired last Monday evening, with both the Down and Sydney Roses taking issue with how the news was delivered to contestants on camera in 'Red Rose' and 'White Rose' rooms.
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Speaking to Ray D'Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday, O'Gara described Road to the Dome as a "wonderful programme" that "showed a different side to the Rose of Tralee" but conceded that showing the Roses at a very emotional moment was wrong. He said it was a mistake that the festival, and not RTÉ, should take "on the chin" and promised there would be a review ahead of next year's competition.
"It isn't reality TV and if you take it all in context, it isn't. That particular part of a very good programme had a touch of reality TV about it - hands up on that," he said. "Our first time doing it in the 60-odd years that the festival has been on... We got that part wrong."
This year marked the first time all 65 Roses had been brought to Tralee; in previous years, a three-day regional final decided the 32-strong Tralee line-up.
While O'Gara said that the decision meant "the stakes were a lot higher" he maintained the move had benefited the festival, which was won this year by Chicago Rose Maggie McEldowney.
"There's always a huge reaction and there's always an emotional reaction and people become very upset and very distraught and that's just the natural way of things," he continued. "They're Roses and they want to be on TV and they want to represent their county.
"All of the Roses, including those people who have doubts - and rightly so - about the way we finished that programme would say it was the right thing to do... It's a wonderful idea versus having a regional final. And it is, because they had an incredible time together.
"It's unique. It's crazy. It's a fantastic festival and I think they went home having 99% great memories. One glitch and I apologise - and did apologise before - for that. It's something that we'll review for next year."
O'Gara admitted that he and the other festival organisers "grimaced" and "all felt bad about it" when they watched the selection process on television during Road to the Dome.
"It was very unfortunate; we apologise," he said. "But honestly, I can tell you, having spent the evening out with all of those Roses the following evening - where we go out and do a bit of celebration when the cameras are gone - none of them would change the fact that we should bring them all to Tralee."
When asked by Ray D'Arcy about Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins using her time onstage to voice her support for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment, O'Gara described the journalist as "a wonderful Rose" and said that Roses were asked about topical issues during their private individual interviews with the judges.
"She happened to say something but it was in context, in my opinion, on the stage," he said. "It created a bit of a hubbub but I would support her. She came here as a journalist; a person with strong views on certain things - on the Eighth Amendment, for example.
"I know it's controversial but if you asked 32 women to come up onstage and give their views of life you will, inevitably, have something said that maybe doesn't have a natural place in the Rose of Tralee live TV programme, because it's not a political programme and it would be nonsensical if you tried to make it that. But I think the woman came to Tralee; she had views and she expressed them and she should go home proud."
O'Gara did, however, take issue with the piece Parkins wrote for last Saturday's Irish Times about her Rose of Tralee experience in which she described the contest as like a "Kate Middleon impersonation contest".
"I thought if she had stuck to message, frankly - I'm going to be honest about this as well - in relation to her view on the Eighth Amendment and her view on women's rights that would have been fine," he said.
"I thought she got a little bit trite and the views about the Rose of Tralee were a wee bit 'journalist coming to Tralee with preconceived notions'. Brianna wouldn't have come to Tralee without knowing exactly what she was involved in. She'd have been involved in five or six events in Sydney to become the Sydney Rose...
"So I think a lot of the comments about the fact that the girls dress up, the fact that they wave at kids as they're going by on the bus - I think that was a bit trite. I'd respect her enough to say that about her views as well. So I think she maybe jumped on the bus there."
On the subject of whether the Rose of Tralee festival is in itself worn-out, O'Gara said: "There's commentary being made on the fact that viewership isn't as high as it was five years ago or ten years ago. Viewership of television full stop isn't as high as it was five years ago or ten years ago. And that trend is just the trend that we're reflecting."
