Rose of Tralee host Dáithí Ó Sé has said he initially thought the protester who interrupted the first night of this year's live TV broadcast was part of the show.
On Monday August 21, the live show on RTÉ One was interrupted when a man, dressed as a priest, stormed the stage at the Dome in Tralee during the appearance of Cavan Rose Lisa Reilly. He then began shouting in protest on behalf of fathers' rights organisation Fathers4Justice.
The programme cut to a competition promo while the man - who was later identified on the Fathers4Justice Twitter page as Matt O'Connor, the founding member of the group - was removed by security personnel.
Reflecting on an "eventful" Rose of Tralee on the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio 1, Ó Sé said that during each Roses' appearance a camera operator is also onstage, and he initially thought this was the case when the protest began.
"I didn't take any notice of it - 'This is the fella with the Steadicam coming up onstage'," he recalled.
"And then I saw this person who was something like he was out of D'Unbelievables... It was out of my corner eye and I said, 'Why didn't they tell me about this?! I can roll with all these jokes; I can roll with the punches. I'm going to have to entertain this person now'.
"[I] Looked at Lisa Reilly, the Cavan Rose, and she looked at me... I looked over at the stage manager and said, 'I'm in for it here now...'"
Ó Sé said he thought the whole thing was "a set-up" because, like most of the TV audience, he believed the protester had said 'Farmers for Justice'.
"I said [to myself], 'The idiot! Why didn't he open the sign before he came out?! Next second, 'Oh no, this isn't supposed to happen at all..."
The presenter said he had been asked by people why he didn't "go for" the protester.
"A very, very simple answer: I'd have been done for assault," said Ó Sé. "He didn't get charged at all because he didn't break the law. So I didn't do anything.
"I caught Lisa's hand [and] I said, 'Don't mind that...' - I won't say on air what I called him. I said, 'You have a fantastic story here now - we're going to go for this'. Before she and I had a chance to think I went straight into the conversation again."
Ó Sé told listeners to the Tubridy show that Reilly was badly shaken by the incident.
"That poor lady, she went off and she was very, very upset afterwards, saying, 'Why me? Why did he do it to me?'.
"Whatever his campaign was is his campaign - that's a totally different issue here. My concern is all those Roses onstage."
"This is her moment to shine," he continued. "She's been representing her community, her family, the people of Cavan. That was her moment onstage.
"It ruined it in one sense, but I tell you: it showed the character she is. The way she came up after it and we spoke again for another seven minutes. Hats off to her; I thought she was fantastic."
Ó Sé was then asked by host Tubridy about Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins voicing her support for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment while onstage.
"It's live TV, that's all part of it," he replied. "It did come towards the very end of the interview, so what do you do? She said what she said; it was obviously her opinion and we moved on."
"This is a debate," he added. "People will say it's a political debate but we all know it's a lot more than that as well. People are saying, 'She shouldn't have said it. She should have said it'. It was her opinion; we encourage Roses to give their opinion. It's not everybody's opinion and I think it's fair to say that."
On the question of whether Parkins' comment had affected her chances of winning, Ó Sé answered: "A one-liner won't make or break you in the Rose of Tralee. I'd imagine the judges - and I can't speak for them - look at all of the Roses in the entire package and then came up with the decision at the end."
Ending the interview on a lighter note, Ó Sé told Tubridy that he wanted to present the show for "as long as I can".
"I think it's like Enda Kenny: the day he says he's going to retire they're asking who's coming next and you're forgotten about straight away!" he laughed, adding that the competition to host was fierce
"I know at least three presenters who park their car on the county bounds in a tux at 7pm with the cards made out of the Roses onstage that night, waiting for me to walk out and walk right into the Garda Band and collapse!"
