Interesting story. The Rose of Tralee is a contest held every year (I think). This is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rose_of_Tralee or you can Google it to get additional information The Rose of Tralee festival is an international competition which is celebrated among Irish communities all over the world. The festival takes its inspiration from a nineteenth century Irish ballad of the same name about a woman called Mary, who because of her beauty was called 'The Rose of Tralee'. The words of the song are credited to C. (or E.) Mordaunt Spencer and the music to Charles William Glover, but a story circulated in connection with the festival [1] claims that the song was written by William Pembroke Mulchinock, a wealthy Protestant, out of love for Mary O'Connor, a poor Catholic maid in service to his parents. The idea for the festival came when a group of local businessmen met in Harty's bar in Tralee to come up with ideas to encourage more tourists to the town during the horse racing meeting. Led by the late Dan Nolan, managing director of The Kerryman newspaper, they hit on the idea of the Rose of Tralee festival. The competition started in 1959. The Rose of Tralee festival is now held annually at the end of August in Tralee, County Kerry, to choose a young woman to be crowned the Rose. The winning Rose is the woman deemed to best match the attributes relayed in the song: "lovely and fair". The winner is selected based on her personality and should be a good role model for the festival and for Ireland during her travels around the world. In contrast to beauty pageants, there is no swimwear section in the Rose of Tralee contest and the contestants are not judged on their appearances but rather their over-all personality and suitability to serve as ambassadors for the festival. Deb > The Rose of Tralee was Mary O'Connor. She died in 1849 and her grave can > still be seen at the graveyard in Clogherbrien. The story is here: > http://www.roseoftralee.ie/catalog/popup_story.php > > Cheers > > Neil >