TRENDING

The Rose of Tralee finds its true home online

23 Aug 2016

Rose of Tralee

Before the winning rose has even been picked, this year’s Rose of Tralee is already proving an internet hit – here’s why.

The Rose of Tralee.

Every year we travel back in time, to an age of self-deprecating humour dated sometime in the mid-1990s. It was here, during the Lovely Girls competition on Craggy Island, that Father Ted’s satirical take on Ireland’s eccentricities peaked.

The Rose of Tralee

Who would have thought that, two decades later, the inspiration behind that beauty pageant, The Rose of Tralee, would still be going strong and would have morphed into an online phenomenon as well.

A series of unexpected events during the live broadcast led to this year’s festival being a particularly big hit on Twitter.

There was a live, impromptu protest from a fathers’ rights activist.

There was rapping.

A rose drumming her way to the top.

A jig.

And, of course, science.

But the show really went skyrocketing up the Twitter trending topics when this year’s Sydney Rose expressed her views about the possibility of a referendum on the 8th Amendment in Ireland.

This sparked more chatter online than any other incident and, perhaps, will have the longest-lasting effect of this year’s show. Responses flowed in from activists on both sides of the divide, some more famous than others.

Main roses image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com