Roses enjoy blooming brilliant tour

THIRTY-TWO beautiful women enjoyed a blooming brilliant start to the 2012 Rose of Tralee Festival when they dropped into the Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown ahead of their big date in County Kerry this week.

The Carlton Hotel Group played host to the Roses at all stages of the tour in their Dublin Airport Hotel, Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown, Carlton Shearwater Hotel Ballinasloe, Carlton Atlantic Coast Hotel Westport and Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick, while the Carlton Hotel Tralee will be their home for the duration of Festival.

In the week from Monday to Friday, August 13-17, the Rose Tour included visits to Newbridge Silverware – lead sponsors of the Rose of Tralee International Festival, RTÃ? to meet the televised selection host Dáithí Ã? Sé, the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and various landmark attractions across the country.

While at RTE, The 2012 Roses met Dáithí O Sé and presented him with 32 red balloons, to celebrate his 32nd day of marriage to Rita Talty, with each balloon symbolising a special wish for the newly married couple.

A major part of a Rose’s experience is the week-long tour of Ireland from Dublin to the Rose of Tralee International Festival in Tralee.

The Rose Tour of Ireland offers the perfect opportunity to showcase the Rose of Tralee as more than a five-day festival.

It also is a very important event on the Irish tourism calendar as the media coverage that the Rose Tour commands is the perfect picture postcard to send to the world.

The tour affords the 32 Roses an opportunity to get to know each other before they arrive at the festival cauldron in Tralee.

Last Friday (August 17), before they set off on the final leg of the tour to Tralee, the Roses walked to the Cystic Fibrosis Unit at the Midwestern Regional Hospital to meet some of the patients and staff.

The Rose of Tralee International Festival is one of Ireland’s largest and longest running festivals, and celebrated 50 years in 2009.

The heart of the festival is the selection of the Rose of Tralee, which brings young women of Irish descent from around the world to County Kerry for a global celebration of Irish culture.

The festival also includes street entertainment, carnival, live concerts, theatre, circus, markets, funfair, fireworks and the internationally renowned Rose Parade.

The new Rose of Tralee will be crowned in the Festival Dome and live on RTÃ? One on Tuesday August 21.