Now in its 65th year, the Roser of Tralee Festival remains as popular as ever. Claire O'Mahony catches up with the hosts of the two-daty extravaganza, Kathryn Thomas and Dáithí Ó Sé.
Kathryn Thomas
Kathryn Thomas has had a lovely relaxed summer. "It’s been really unbusy," the TV and radio presenter says. "We did a fabulous week in Portugal away with the kids. I just took a lot of time out because I knew I’d be doing radio in August [filling in for Ray D’Arcy on his show] and I knew that I’d be gearing up for this too, so I made sure that I did very little."
'This’ is of course, the Rose of Tralee, now in its 65th year. 2024 is the second time Kathryn joins Dáithí Ó Sé on stage as co-host the event. She now has first-hand experience of frenzy of activity that Rose week entails. "Dáithí was trying to explain it to me last year. He said, ‘Kathryn, just wait, you just get so caught up in it all’" she says. "Last year, my husband Padraig came down and he got the train back the next morning. He said it was a wasted train ticket because ‘You weren’t even there. You were already gone to the land of the Roses’," she laughs. "That’s what it is; it’s the Rose of Tralee bubble."
For her inaugural hosting stint last year, all eyes were trained on how Kathryn would interact with the existing host and how having two presenters would play out. "I feel I'm a bit more prepared this year. Now we know it works, and Dáithí and I knew it would work. I said, as long as we are with each other the way we are as mates, and I don’t take away from what you’ve done and what you’ve built up, which is this incredible, entertaining, self-deprecating role that has been yours and that you've made yours. I don't want to change that. I'm just going to bring my own little bit of what I do."
What does she think that is? "I love people’s stories. I love listening and I’m a huge fan of genealogy and those family connections, what it means when you’re living abroad. I travelled for 10 years and I met Irish people all over the world. I know the Irish diaspora and how strong it is. I know what it feels like when you're living in Perth or Tokyo, how far away it can feel and how important your Irish connections are."
Conscious of the Rose of Tralee naysayers who believe the festival is at best dated and at worst, profoundly sexist, Kathryn is keen to address these concerns on stage. "I spent a week with these girls last year and honestly, they are more articulate, more intelligent and more travelled than I could ever be," she says. "Getting those stories, and asking these girls in their 20s with two PhDs and Master’s degrees why they are taking part in the Rose of Tralee, I was really interested in that."
Earlier this year, it was announced that Operation Transformation, the show Kathryn hosted for 14 seasons, was no more. How is she feeling about that now? "Everybody who worked on the show was genuinely sad because it was a huge part of our lives for so long and to say goodbye is difficult. But I felt it was the right time for me," she says. "I had done No Frontiers for 10 years, starting when I was 21 and finishing when I was 31. Then I started OT, and it ran for 14 years. I knew if I didn't close the chapter, it wouldn't open another one to allow me to have a clear run of something else and do things that I wanted to do and challenge myself."
Once the Rose of Tralee finishes, she will go straight into filming a new documentary series, details of which she can’t divulge at present. "I’ve been in broadcasting for 20 years-plus. I’m now the mother of two girls and the media landscape is changing. The world that we live in is completely different to when I started. I think that life experience lends itself to stepping into that more questioning, documentary space which I’ve been trying to do for a while."
But the joy of live TV and The Rose of Tralee is also a space she loves to inhabit very much. "The Rose of Tralee is such a whole atmosphere of celebration and support and female empowerment and family and craic and madness and storytelling and networking and Irish history and connection," she says.
Dáithí Ó Sé
"Around a month ago, would you believe it, I knocked my kneecap out," says Dáithí Ó Sé, explaining why he’s been sporting a pair of crutches recently. "It was just one of those things – I was talking when I should have been listening. I just fell and all my body weight came down on top of it. I looked down and there was my kneecap on the side of my knee. So then I put it back in again and that was all grand."
The good news is that he reckons he’ll be off the crutches in time for hosting duties at the Rose of Tralee. However, it did put a halt to his gallop in terms of summer activities. "That slowed me down. But I got this thing into my head that, do you know what? I can't do anything about this now, so I may as well just take it easy and relax. For the last two weeks, I've been doing a lot of physio and going to the gym twice a day," he says. "I’ve really had to mind myself now. That's all you can do; these things happen in life. We just have to roll with the punches when they come."
His kneecap injury meant that his wife, former New Jersey Rose, Rita Talty, and their 10-year-old son Ógie didn’t get to go the US as planned. "But Rita’s parents came over for the All-Ireland hurling final and we had a lot of the summer here. It was a different summer but it was nice because we were just hanging out all the time," he sexplains.
Dáithí thinks that for this year’s Rose of Tralee, there is even more pressure to produce an amazing show because last year, much attention was on the introduction of a second host. "It’s back to square one, as in, OK people are used to two presenters now. Let’s move on – what else does the show have?" he says. "We have two brilliant shows to pull off and we're going to have to make them bigger and better than ever, and that’s always the way it’s been. This year, focus off the presenters, which is rightly so. Focus should never be on the presenters. It's all about the Roses."
He has hosted the show since 2010 but each year seems fresh to him because of the participants. "In one sense, we do the same show every year, but it's so different every year as well. The bones of it, the structure of it are the same, which is fantastic because we are very familiar with it, but the Roses come with their own stories and their own party pieces and their own madness, their own quirks and everything. That's what really adds the flavour to it every year for me."
He continues, "It's always about meeting them the first day and then the Tuesday when we're on TV for the last time and seeing how much they have grown into the role. They really take the mantle and take the responsibility of representing themselves, their family and their community, be it here in Ireland or their Irish communities all around the world. It's great to see that it still means so much to all these Roses, what it is to represent where they're from."
The week of the Rose of Tralee is always a full-on affair, but he knows the importance of pacing himself. "You’d be like a prime racehorse; you have to hold it for the line. You really have to hold the excitement for the Monday and Tuesday for the shows, because that’s what people want to see. It’s important not to peak too early with it before the race starts at all. So that’s what I’m trying to do. I put myself in a good frame of mind and go down there in good form. I wouldn’t be out and about – bed early every night for about a month before. Then you land down to Tralee and to all the excitement that goes with it."
After the festival, and having just filmed at the Fleadh in Wexford, he’ll have some time off before heading back to the studio for Today in late September. "That’s a nice break," he says. In the meantime, though, he’s concentrating on getting his knee better in time for his Festival Dome responsibilities. "I just need plenty of rest and to keep going to the gym. That’s all I’m doing and it’s boring but I just have to be patient with it."
Watch The Rose of Tralee International Festival at 8pm on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 August on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
