Karen Conaghan Race is at far left and her sister, Sarah Conaghan at far right, with Roses in between.
As you watch Saturday night’s Mid-Atlantic Rose of Tralee Final at the Philadelphia Irish Center—you are going, aren’t you?—know this: you’re catching a glimpse of the future of this long-running County Kerry Festival.
Since 1959, the festival has been selecting a young woman on a yearly basis to serve as its Rose of Tralee, with the candidates coming from around the world.
Anthony O’Gara, managing director of the festival, says the United States is about to gain many, many new Rose of Tralee Centres–groups of people responsible for running their own local and regional festivals.
“Our ambition is to build 250 centres in America in nine regions,” says O’Gara. “Sarah Conaghan and her sister Karen Conaghan Race have spearheaded the movement here in the United States. This [instead of running just one local festival], they’ll be running a regional festival pulling in six centres.”
This expansion is all part of the international festival’s mission to bring a bit of the Irish culture to the rest of the world. In 2004, the international festival had just 28 centres; today there are 80, only half of them in Ireland.
O’Gara acknowledges that there are many Rose of Tralee Centers in the States already–but they’re scattered. “There are pockets of Irish in cities and regions all over the united States,” he notes. “If you just have one centre for every state, you’re only reaching a tiny portion of the Irish and irish-Americans living in that state,” he says.
If the international committee has anything to say about it, the vast increase in local centres ought to capture a far bigger audience.
If you want to see how that ambitious plan is progressing, check out the Mid-Atlantic final at the Irish Center Saturday night.
[googleMap name=”Philadelphia Irish Center” width=”600″ height=”600″ directions_from=”true”]6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19118[/googleMap]
