The thorny issue of the Rose...
THE ROSE OF TRALEE RTÉ ONE, TODAY, 9.35PM
THERE are two thing you know you’re going to get with every piece about The Rose Of Tralee (RTÉ one, tonight, 9.35pm).
First, there will be the tediously inevitable mention of the ‘Lovely Girls’.
This is usually delivered with the kind of rhetorical flourish which indicates the genius who made the gag thinks they’re the first person to ever make such a dazzling and original comparison.
They’re not, of course, but that won’t stop them thinking they’re ever so clever.
Then there will be the equally inevitable, but even more tedious complaints about the very existence of such an apparently anachronistic throwback. That second argument is just white noise. Let’s face it, when you have people getting their fascinators in a bunch over Ladies Day at the races, you realise that we’re not dealing with brave objectors who are just that bit more sensitive and clever than the rest of us. Far from it – we now just seem to be dealing with people who really don’t like watching other people having a good time.
And that’s the reason why The Rose Of Tralee continues to block book two chunks of prime time viewing on RTÉ every year.
The show is broadcast because it is, whether we choose to like it not, a unique cultural institution in this country, which has now been running for many decades.
And in that time it has been a consistent ratings winner, usually coming second in the yearly figures to only the Late Late Toy Show or various large sporting events.
The reason for the success of this undeniably old-fashioned extravaganza is simple – it is because it’s an undeniably oldfashioned extravaganza.
Sure, it may hark back to a supposedly simpler time and is so sepia-tinged at times that it’s positively surreal. But that is its innate charm and, crucially, it also provides the sight of a load of people actually enjoying themselves, bothering nobody else and just having a good time and we can’t have that can we?
Dáithí Ó Sé is the perfect presenter for such a production because he knows the whole thing is mildly ludicrous but doesn’t care – and, let’s be honest, he likes it so much he even married one of the Roses, so nobody can doubt his commitment to the cause.
In recent years, lest we forget, we’ve had a gay Rose, a Rose gone rogue who spoke about the need for an abortion referendum and even a stage invasion by a bloke dressed as a priest.
Frankly, how could you not embrace something like that?
Or, on the other hand, you could just choose to watch something else without making a big fuss about how super-woke you are.
Whichever option works...