Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh–a definite kid magnet.
The cheers that rose when the International Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh, walked in the front door of St. Declan’s Irish-American Pub on Walnut Street in Philadelphia last Saturday were only partly for her. The Mayo-Kerry semi-final Gaelic football match was on three TVs and Mayo had just scored.
“Oh,” said Walsh, a rabid Mayo supporter, as she craned her neck around to see the screen. “Maybe I should just walk in and out the door a few more times so they score.”
Sadly, that wouldn’t have helped. Mayo lost to Kerry which will be facing Donegal in the all-Irelands this year. But that didn’t dim the festivities for long. The crowd had come not just to watch the game but to cheer Walsh, the first Philadelphia Rose of Tralee ever to bring home the international crown.
Children clamored to sit on her lap while she watched the game, wearing the jersey given to her by the Mayo team after she attended a game during Rose week. Everyone wanted their photo taken with her, including a group of tourists from Tyrone who gathered under the tri-color—the Republic’s flag—flapping in the breeze outside the pub, which is owned by Irish immigrant Aidan Travers and American Marty Spellman, whose daughter, Elizabeth was the 2012 Philadelphia Rose.
A large contingent of the Philadelphia Mayo Association was also there—and again, not just to watch the game. That’s because Walsh grew up in Shrule, County Mayo, after being born and raised for the first seven years of her life in Boston. The Mayo Association has adopted her as one of their own, which she referenced when she made her first public speech as the new Rose, standing behind the bar with a mike in her hand.
Here’s what she had to say, which made them love her even more:
“Three years ago I moved to this great city of brotherly love and I didn’t know a soul. And somehow, a day later, I ended up on the Notre Dames [Ladies Gaelic] Football team, because, like all great Irish, they find you as soon as you enter a new city. There’s a GPS tracker I think on every Irish person that leaves the homeland.
“I fell in love with the city and fell in love with the Irish community and kind of fell into the Rose family here and they welcomed me with open arms. Of course, the Mayo Association. . . I believe I became a member but I didn’t know I became a member. Actually I think [member] Attracta O’Malley is down there asking me to pay my membership.
From all the homecomings I’ve had, for anyone watched me on TV, I have a bit of an identity crisis: Born in Boston, raised in Shrule, County Mayo, did a short stint in New York, and then I found my home, my favorite home in Philadelphia. A lot of people are claiming me, but it was a fantastic honor to hear Philadelphia being called Tuesday night last. This is home.”
Walsh had to fly back to Ireland this week to appear on the RTE program, “The Late, Late Show,” and after that, a whirlwind of other activities will take the Rose around the country and throughout the Delaware Valley during her year’s reign. To see her on Irish TV, where it’s expected that she will talk about the interview in the Irish Sun in which she told a reporter she is gay, go to the online streaming site of RTE on Friday September 5 at 4:30 PM.
View our photos of Maria’s homecoming party here.
