Abu Dhabi Rose’s accident-prone past firmly behind her for festival

ABU Dhabi Rose Sara Kate Mangan has revealed that she once fell off a cliff in her younger accident prone days.

The 26-year-old nurse (right) also received 18 stitches on her forehead from another incident when she was running home from school.

Originally from Mayo, Ms Mangan revealed her mother brought her to a local priest when she was about 13 or 14 and she was blessed, and “touch wood, since then there has been no accident,” she said, yesterday.

She was among the 57 Roses who were at the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham in advance of this year’s Rose of Tralee International Festival.

The festival is now in its 59th year, and interviews with the final 32 Roses will be broadcast live from the festival dome next Monday and Tuesday night on RTÉ One. Ms Mangan revealed that her fall off a cliff – although, she points out, not a big one – happened when she and her mother were out picking winkles one day. “We were sat on the ledge looking at the winkles, and then I ended up off the cliff,” she said. Now working in the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, she said that her dad, PJ, who died 13 years ago, would have been as “proud as punch” to see her becoming a Rose of Tralee.

She said her dad had been waiting on a double lung transplant, and the Rose is a great advocate for carrying a donor card.

“He made me promise to be a Rose. He is with me every day,” added Ms Mangan.