Dáithí Ó Sé is not having any of it. The Kerry man and long-time host of the Rose of Tralee has come out swinging against critics who have labelled the beloved festival as outdated, saying people have been unfairly knocking it for far too long.
“People were having cheap shots at the Rose of Tralee for a long, long time,” Dáithí said, making clear he has little patience for the tired narrative that the festival has had its day. For him, the event is something genuinely special, and the criticism has never really stacked up.
The Rose of Tralee has been a fixture of Irish summer television for decades, drawing huge audiences and bringing together women of Irish heritage from all corners of the world. But it has also attracted its fair share of controversy over the years, with some arguing the format feels like a relic of a different Ireland, one that no longer reflects how the country sees itself.
Dáithí is not buying that argument. The presenter, who has become as synonymous with the festival as the roses themselves, believes the event has a warmth and community spirit that its detractors consistently fail to acknowledge. For the people who take part, and for the families and communities behind them, it means everything.
The festival, held annually in Tralee, Co Kerry, sees young women from Irish communities around the globe compete not in a traditional beauty pageant sense, but through personality, conversation and storytelling. Each Rose is accompanied by an escort, and the televised interviews with Dáithí have become some of the most watched and talked about moments on Irish TV every year, for good reasons and occasionally chaotic ones.
Over the years the show has had plenty of memorable moments, from unexpected on-stage surprises to emotional personal stories that stopped the country in its tracks. That human element is exactly what Dáithí points to when defending the festival against those who dismiss it.
The criticism of the Rose of Tralee is not new. Commentators and columnists have been questioning its relevance for years, with debates about whether the format is too old fashioned for modern Ireland. Some have called for it to be scrapped entirely, while others have pushed for significant changes to how it is run and judged.
But the ratings have told a different story. Year after year, the Rose of Tralee pulls in some of the biggest TV audiences of the summer season, suggesting that whatever the critics think, ordinary Irish people still have a serious soft spot for it. The festival itself also generates enormous economic activity for Tralee and the wider Kerry region, with thousands of visitors descending on the town each August.
For Dáithí, who grew up in the Kerry Gaeltacht and built his career across both Irish and English language television, the Rose of Tralee is close to his heart in a way that goes beyond just being a presenting gig. He has spoken before about the pride he feels in hosting it and the connections he has made through the festival over the years.
His defence of the event will resonate with the many Irish people who feel the Rose of Tralee gets an unfair kicking from a certain type of commentator who sees it as an easy target. There is a sense among supporters of the festival that the criticism often says more about the critics than it does about the event itself.
Whether the Rose of Tralee will continue to evolve and adapt to changing tastes remains to be seen. But if Dáithí Ó Sé has anything to say about it, the festival is not going anywhere, and neither is he.