Julie hopes to make the final cut in Rose festival
SLIGO has a new Rose and she hopes to be the second ever contestant from the county to make it all the way to the TV finals in the Rose of Tralee next month.
The festival, one of Ireland’s most successful and longest running will celebrate 59 years in 2018.
Julie Patterson from Rathcormac will be representing Sligo having come out on top at the Sligo Rose Selection in the Clayton Hotel in June. The Sligo Champion sponsored Julie for the selection night. The 26-year-old primary school teacher was delighted to get the nod to go forward in the competition and will be one of 60 roses to travel to Tralee for the week long festivities.
She told the Sligo Champion why she deceided to enter the compeition: “I wanted to meet new people, to have a new experience, to challenge myself a little.”
Daughter of Richard and Avril Patterson, Julie has two brothers. She is especially looking forward to attending events around Sligo and has been inundated with invites. Just last weekend she was the guest of honour at the Ballintrillick Donkey Derby.
So was being a Rose of Tralee always a dream for Julie? She admits she would have always watched the programme as a little girl and wondered could she ever be a Rose.
Indeed this is not the first time Julie has entered the Rose compeition. In 2015 she was also a want to be contestant but didn’t make the cut.
She recalls: “Even though I didn’t make it through, I was encouraged to go back and do it again. I found out that a lot of the contestants do enter more than once. This year in August I’m turning 27 so it’s now or never. I will be too old otherwise.”
Once the 60 or so roses get to Tralee the pack will be whittled down to a lucky 32 who will get to appear on stage in the Dome with presenter Daithi O’Shea. Last week when Julie travelled to RTE studios in Donnybrook to meet with producers, she got a taste for what that would be like.
“I got to meet with Daithi and had a chat, he is really nice. The individual interviews took place. Former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh was one of the interviewees,” says Julie.
The next stage in the competition is to travel to Maynooth on August 13th for the group interview and then onto Kerry for the week long celebration.
“My family have already all bought tickets for the Dome, so I hope I get through to the TV finals. It would be amazing to get that far.”
As for her Rose escort - Julie doesn’t get to pick. If she did it would be her long term beau Richard whom she has been dating for 9 years.
For now the former Grammar School pupil has taken a year out from her teaching to pursue her ambitions, being a Rose, writing a children’s book and travelling to as far afield as New Zealand. “I’ ll also get to take part in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade and visit Chernobyl,” she says.