Applications open in search for the next Wicklow Rose

The search for the 2020 Wicklow Rose gets underway this weekend with an information event at the Arklow Bay Hotel on Sunday, February 2 from 4 p.m.

Lyn Moloney, Wicklow Rose co-ordinator, said: ’The Rose of Tralee International Festival is the most incredible experience and I would encourage as many young women as possible to take part and become their local Rose. I guarantee them they will make incredible friends and have an amazing experience.

‘Many people think that the Rose of Tralee festival is just one week long and they don’t realise that the Roses and Rose Escorts have so many incredible experiences throughout the whole year. All I can say to any young woman is to go for it and apply.’

Current Wicklow Rose Lorna Mallick said her decision to apply was ‘without a doubt one of the best decisions I have ever made and I look back with many fond memories and many new friends from around the globe.’

‘The Rose of Tralee is one of the oldest and largest festivals in Ireland and celebrates young women of Irish descent and heritage from all around the world. On entering the Rose of Tralee, I heard so much about the Rose ‘family’, how I would meet some of my best friends for life and the well-known ‘once a rose, always a rose’ and I genuinely found it all so hard to believe. I can now most certainly confirm that it was all true. Having visited most of the counties in Ireland, along with Frankfurt, New York, Texas, Ohio, Toronto and Yorkshire over the past two years, I have made some incredible memories with amazing friends and can almost be guaranteed a couch in any county and many a city around the world.

Ms Mallick added that the opportunity to volunteer with local and international charities was an important part of her time as the Wicklow Rose.

‘One of the highlights of my year as the 2018 Wicklow Rose was definitely travelling to Adi Roche’s children’s orphanage and mental asylum in Vesnova, Belarus. It was an eye-opening, challenging but most of all rewarding experience.’

Any women aged between 18 and 29 years old interested in applying are invited to the event.

For more information, contact the Wicklow Rose Co Ordinator Lyn Moloney on 083 4631611 or Steve Cronly on 086 2505791.