Elle Gordon chats to Kathryn Thomas on teaming up with Dáithí Ó Sé as co-host of this year's Rose of Tralee.
You can hear the enthusiasm in Kathryn Thomas’ voice at the prospect of this exciting next chapter in her presenting career. She is about to dash off to collect her girls; Ellie and Grace whom she shares with husband Padraig McLoughlin but before she does, we squeeze in our chat on all things Rose of Tralee.
I ask if it had a big part in her own household growing up. Kathryn says "Totally. Well, my nana, I swear to God if my nana doesn’t turn up on stage from the grave!! She’ll be with me on the Monday and the Tuesday night. All of my Mam’s side of the family are from Kerry and we used to watch it religiously with my nana and my dad and my sister.
"My nana used to always want us to enter the Carlow Rose of Tralee, and I think for her, it was very much about the glitz and the glamour and the dresses and the style. Back then, there wasn’t that many shows that were about a celebration of women, but also a celebration of style where you could get to watch it on the telly."
And what about Kathryn. Did she enjoy watching it herself?
"I suppose growing up I watched it with the eyes of a child looking at these 'Princesses’ for want of a better word. And then I didn’t watch it for a few years. I kind of fell away from it when I was too busy snogging boys to be sitting in with the folks on a Monday or Tuesday night in summer when there were much more important things to do. But coming back to it now, I realise it is exactly that: a celebration of women."
To the naysayers who think it is outdated what does she say?
"I think the Rose of Tralee has modernised with the times. I think it gets a bit of flack for maybe not being particularly relevant, but I think there has never been a more important time to have it. We are celebrating 32 different women from across the globe, celebrating their achievements, their differences, and their confidence.
"I read a line last night in one of the bios about the women and one of the women said, "I cannot wait to get to Ireland to meet all the other Roses who are going to be like me, powerful, confident and independent." And I just went, "When do we celebrate ourselves like that? It is very rare that you get women who say that about themselves, and about other women that they are going to be spending the next couple of weeks with you know."
And she must be looking forward to working with Dáithí.
"What Dáithí brings to the show is his warmth, and his professionalism as a presenter, his ability to engage with people and of course he brings the craic. He has the room in the palm of his hand because he is Dáithí, and everybody loves him. I am really looking forward to it."
As a mum of two little girls, is seeing all these confident young women setting such great examples heartening for her? "Anything I can do to instill confidence, individuality, uniqueness, self-celebration to my girls – that is what I always strive to do. Understanding that no two people are the same. No two people have the same dreams. No two people have the same career path. No two people have the same struggles, and that is important to me. There is very rarely an opportunity like this where you get 32 women and we get to celebrate their accomplishments, they get to celebrate each other, and they get to celebrate themselves."
Will she get the family down for the celebrations?
"Oh my God, sure my mother is beside herself! The gang are coming down. But you see, I need to kind of keep my family and friends at bay because there is this opportunity of overindulgence of craic agus ceoil and I need to keep them away so I am not lured into it. Apparently, Tralee is just going to be lit for the weekend. I am probably going to have to lock myself in my hotel room to swot up on my notes!
"But look it, I am looking forward to the craic. They will all be over from Kenmare and there will be a gang down from Dublin. I don’t know if Padraig is going to bring the girls down yet… we haven’t even got that far, but we will see. I will welcome Tralee with open arms on the Tuesday night when we finish, and hopefully celebrate with all the women who have put so much work into this as well."
