Rose row Brianna is a new face for nation’s early risers

FORMER Sydney Rose of Tralee hopeful Brianna Parkins, left, has landed a job on Ireland AM as a roving reporter for Virgin Media One’s morning show.

Brianna was at the centre of a mini-storm when she called for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment at the Co. Kerry festival in 2016.

During her interview with Dáithí Ó Sé at the festival dome, she called for a referendum to repeal the Eighth and the traditionally apolitical ‘lovely girls’ competition was briefly centre stage in the abortion debate.

While some commended her for her comments, others were horrified, not least chair of the judging panel Mary Kennedy, who said that the festival was not a political platform’.

Ó Sé, later said that the festival ‘was not the place’ for such expressions of political opinion.

Brianna didn’t win the competition and returned to Sydney shortly after.

But she has just returned to live in Ireland and now works on Ireland AM.