Southern California Rose of Tralee

First, I must thank my mother, Peggy Learman, because she is the real reason I am here. It is my mother who so adored her Irish mother, Margaret Kerrigan, and our long mystical Irish history.  It was effortless then for me to participate in the Southern California Rose of Tralee, because it was an extension of my “family.”  Chosen as the 1987 Rose, I suddenly became an ambassador for all of us here in America as I went “home” to Ireland.

It was truly a moment that changed my life forever… Being the 1987 Rose, began a journey that is still continuing.  It has given me confidence, hope, love, pride and utter joy.  Stepping off the plane, I was an instant celebrity.  My cheeks hurt from smiling.  I quickly learned that where ever I went it was so important to acknowledge all the people that had come to watch and see the Roses from all over the world – we were surrounded. And I must be honest…I loved waving to the cheering crowd in city after city and adored the children begging for an autograph. Being a Rose gave me the opportunity to see the human spirit at its best and understand why the Irish have a special knack of looking at life with a genuine sparkle in their eyes.  And it’s not because I kissed the Blarney stone - it changed me.  Returning to Los Angeles, Terry Anderson and Phyliss Mulvey, continued giving me the opportunity to shine. 

So moved was I by my experience I wrote about it; it was the first major magazine article I published.   I used that inspired article to sell a book outline; that book was just released by Barnes & Noble.  In June, I will be speaking at the Protocol School of Washington.  Because of my experience, my sister became the Washington, D.C. Rose and ran the Rose Center there for several years.  And, it all stems back to the Southern California Rose of Tralee.

Mom, and yes, Terry, I am forever grateful.

Kelly Learman Browne, 1987

I have been blessed with good friends in my life.  Some of whom I met through the Irish Fair Foundation's Rose of Tralee network.   I met Jean during my first year.  We knew right away that we would be friends for a very long time.  We had so much in common, not just with each other, but with our families, our values and traditions.

While in Ireland , I was fortunate to have roomed with Orla, Rose from Perth.  I had no family with me at the time, and her family was kind enough to "adopt" me.   I was invited to go everywhere with them, aside from the usual Rose appearances at the various events.    Another lasting friendship is with Kathleen, the Boston Rose.    What a wonderful person she is.  The three of us (Orla, Kathleen and I) had many fun times together.  Times that will never be forgotten.   Although there are quite a few miles between us, we still keep in touch.  We could pick up the phone or email each other after weeks have gone by, and pick up with each others lives as if time stood still. 

I am thankful to have been given this great opportunity and do hope that others can forge long lasting friendships as I have.

Colleen Cutler Sindle, 1989

The year was 1990 and I was in school at USC 

I read an ad in the newspaper for the Rose of Tralee 

Asking girls to participate that were of Irish decent 

So off to the Rose Orientation I went!

Who would’ve known it would be me

To represent Southern California in Tralee

What was an experience that I would not forget

There has been no other like it yet!

Being in Ireland taught me what it was to be an ambassador

However, the experience went well beyond that year and more.

Upon returning, I finished my degree

Moved to San Francisco and worked in hi-tech PR, (.com and IT)

Several hard years in PR lead me to pursue a life to teach

Bringing me back to San Diego and home near the beach

I met my husband learning to scuba dive

With three boys we are now a family of five.

My career as of late is running the family enterprise

To work in a 24/7 security business was quite a surprise

Working my way up the ladder to the top

Makes for a busy life ~ its always nonstop!

throughout my life the Rose days stay with me

As I use the knowledge I learned for business acumen constantly.

And every once in a while when I’m in an Irish bar

I’ll tell the band or bartender that I was an Irish *star*

It opens doors ~ if even for just one free drink or a serenaded song

18 years….has it been that long?

A big thank you and Irish Prayer to those who support the Southern California Rose program.

It was a monumental milestone in my life and has had a major influence on who I am.

Shandon Eales Harbour, 1990

The Rose is an altering experience. Past Roses have expressed it as being initiated into a Secret Sorority, where past Roses can only try to described the adventure you are about to partake in.  For me, it was like comparing it to Academy Awards, Mardi Gras, Kentucky Derby, and E! Entertainment.... rolled up into one amazing whirlwind. The genuine enthusiasm you feel from the people will warm you for years.  As they say, once a Rose, always a Rose? It’s a bit of bizarre celebrity fascination. It doesn’t matter whether you are in Ireland or your local pub, this “celebrity” has stayed with me for 16 years and counting. Throughout the years, I have been offered jobs, invited to join committees and attend special events all because I was a Rose.  I have met amazing people and formed lasting friendships through the Irish Community.  I cherish my 16 years with my adopted Irish Family, the Irish Fair Foundation and their supporters and look forward to seeing them each spring and summer.  Thank you for being part of my past and my future.

Kari Ann Patterson Gerlach, 1992

Fifteen years later, I am still enamored with the Rose of Tralee.  I’m in love with the notion that Beauty is defined by “the truth in her eye ever dawning.”  It was that very definition of Beauty that prompted me to fill out that first Rose application.  I was in my early-twenties, and in the midst of my search for passion and identity, which were inexplicably intertwined at the time.  And it was then, in the midst of my search, that someone saw the pilgrim soul in me.  Terry opened the folded paper in his hand and read my name and I was Rose.

Was I beautiful then?  No. No, I wasn’t beautiful the night I became Rose.  Not really.  Nor was I beautiful waving from parade floats or signing autographs in the park in Tralee.  Nor on the TV night when Gay Byrne placed me 32^nd of 32 Roses, because he thought my party piece a fitting tribute to all the Roses.  No, not then.  I wasn’t beautiful until the night when I gave up my crown and handed it to the next girl, Katherine Geary.  Because in handing it over, I was continuing the love affair, offering the mythology to the next class of Roses, believing firmly that Beauty is not physical, but lies in the truth in her grace, and in her eyes ever dawning.  The Rose of Tralee doesn’t select the most beautiful young woman; the Rose of Tralee creates the most beautiful young woman.

Now, I am a long standing member of the Sisterhood of Roses.  Some of us are not as skinny or shiny as we once were, a little more gray, a few more wrinkles.  But to my sisters, this beautiful bouquet of Roses, these women whose eyes light with grace and truth and Beauty, to you I say this:

Time’s bitter flood will rise...your beauty perish and be lost....for all eyes but these eyes

Eileen Hunt McKeagney, 1993

It’s identity-shaping!  We were raised on parades and fairs, music and dance, rashers and puddings, hurling and football - but we never really knew what it meant to be Irish.  Then we became a Rose.  Strutting our poise, presence and personality, we took new meaning from being Irish, and even greater meaning from being women.  We were the same as so many Roses - intelligent, successful, embodying beauty from the inside out – and yet completely unique in ourselves.  And we came to believe in ourselves and being Irish like never before.  We went on to complete an inner circle, those who have experienced Tralee, hungry to tell our tales.  But the outer circle – family and friends, commentators and critics – were never going to hear us.  They could never comprehend the magnitude of the thing called Festival; the women called Rose.  And yet it’s really quite simple.  We are Roses – a prestigious circle of Irish women who know exactly who we are, what we’ve done, and what we’re capable of doing.  And so we still laugh and cry, drink and sing, live as if there is no tomorrow, and know that because of Tralee and who we became out there, our lives have never been the same.  We went out there as Irish women, but we came back knowing exactly what that meant, and who we are in light of it. 

Katherine Geary Fitzpatrick, 1994

New friendships and fabulous opportunities.  The Rose of Tralee opened so many doors for me.  Having participated in the Rose of Tralee for two years, I was able to meet stellar men and women.    A few Roses became future roommates and life-long friends.   Our children are now friends and international playmates.

The Southern California center is especially fortunate to work with the American Ireland Fund charity events.  I felt so privileged to meet Bob and Dolores Hope,  Liam Neeson,  Dana Delaney,  Kenneth Brannagh and Gregory Peck.    It was an honor to shake their hands, and an honor I would not have had without the Rose of Tralee.  A shared Irish heritage and a love for Ireland can bring people together that are otherwise worlds apart.

A special thank you to Terry Anderson for his support of the Southern California Rose of Tralee Center.

Therese Sullivan Grant, 1995

As a little girl I grew up with an avid imagination & an uncanny ability to get lost in my dreams.  Often times I would imagine far away places and distant lands where leprechauns danced little jigs at the end of beautiful rainbows, where fairy princesses made friends with wizards and where I could pass away the day beneath the hot sun listening to the sounds of a babbling brook and contemplating when my next great adventure would begin.

Little did I know that years later my fantasy world would collide with reality. My quest for adventure, my desire to meet new people, explore new cultures and discover a bit about myself & my Irish ancestry was brought to life before me on my journey as the Rose of Tralee.

1999 was a year unlike all others, it is a year that I look back upon and smile and feel so blessed that someone thought I lucky and fair enough to be the Rose of Tralee. I have fond memories of the friends that I made, the people that I met and the wonderful moments that are forever burned in my memory of my time in Ireland.  Who could ask for a better introduction to a far away land filled with the most beautiful scenery, the most humble of people and the richest of cultures? 

Being the Rose of Tralee shaped and molded me into the person I have become today.  I look back now upon my year as the Rose and I say “thank you” to each person who walked with me on my journey and to the roses of the future, May you always remember to  dream & imagine…you never know where it might take you. 

Kerry O'Connell Beauchemin, 1999

For a Rose, traveling the final stretch of road into Tralee brings a mixture of excitement and sadness. While you are entering the pinnacle of your experience as Roses, this journey also signals that you are nearing the end of your time together in Ireland . In 2000, as we made the trip into County Kerry, our Perth Rose Louise Lowry was struggling to write a poem to recite as her Television party piece. Upon learning this, we began working as a group by contributing one line at a time until it was finished.

The unifying feature of my experience was the emphasis the Roses placed on one another. There are countless moments I will never forget. Moments that in retrospect feel as if they were shared with women I have known my whole life. Over the past eight years- the Roses from 2000 remain very close. Together, we’ve endured some of life’s toughest challenges. We have seen each other through serious illness, losing parents and tragically even one of our own Roses in late 2001. We have celebrated our first homes, our marriages and the births of our children. In all this time, it has never escaped me that the sense of sorority we have can’t be explained. It can only be experienced.

To those who would call this sentiment cliché, I will simply submit that a friendship between Roses is comprised of far more than sentiment, and the situational euphoria experienced in Ireland. Our friendships are woven from the integrity, character and Joie de vivre of our beloved Irish culture. What is more, each of us is proud to have been part of an institution that celebrates a young woman’s intellect, poise, experience, education and potential- all the features I believe make a person worthy of the name “role model”. In 2000, my class of Roses included a family law barrister, a pediatric special needs therapist, a nurse, and a human rights advocate to the United Nations. Regardless of post, title, education or status, each of these women has contributed tirelessly to their communities and to one another- and I am proud to be counted among them.

In the years since I wore the sash and crown, there has scarcely been a single element of my life that has not been touched by the friendships I have gained, the lessons I learned or the confidence I found through being a Rose. In every element of my life I draw upon the courage, wisdom, advice and careful grace I have witnessed in each of those 27 women. Each of them has helped me to cultivate a better version of myself, and for this reason, being a Rose has truly shaped my life.

At the end of our journey in Ireland, it was truly appropriate that our Perth Rose Louise Lowry would serve as the final Rose to appear on television in 2000. After all, her party piece had become more than a poem. Instead, it was a message from all of us.

“…this is not the end. We’ve only begun. In our hearts, together- we’ve already won”

Erin McCreary Hart, 2000

I can still remember the night that I was given the title of the 2002 Southern California Rose of Tralee".  I remember thinking how much fun it was going to be to go to represent my centre, travel to Ireland for the first time, and experience the fun of the festival that all of the past roses had shared with me over the years. What I didn't think about was what the experience would mean to me personally and longer term. My time in Ireland for the festival was one of huge growth for me. Meeting new people from all around the world, being immersed in a new culture for 3 weeks, and having to step out of my comfort zone while participating in interview and media appearances. Such a new experience for a girl from laid back Redondo Beach! Since the festival, I have continued to feel the effects from my Tralee experience. I have since traveled back to Ireland 4 times to visit the friends that I made during my time there- still being recognized by the occasional fan- although not so much anymore! Additionally, I have two best friends as a result of the festival- the 2002 San Francisco Rose of Tralee (Erin Lucey) who is still living in Ireland and the 2002 Washington DC Rose of Tralee (Joy Peck) who ended up marrying her escort from Tralee and are now the proud parents of 2 future roses! The experiences from the festival, along with the friends that I made along the way, have impacted who I am today and I have everyone involved with this great program to thank!

Anneliese Schumacher, 2002

The Rose of Tralee has been as amazing experience for me, and will be with me for the rest of my life. Traveling to Ireland for the first time with my family was a fantastic experience for all of us, and was the beginning of many more trips to come. After my year as the Southern California Rose, I could not have predicted what would be next, how could I top 2005? After my second visit to Ireland to reunite with the Roses and Escorts of 2005, the New Orleans escort and I became the next rose and escort love story. Chris is one of the reasons why I have grown so much in regards to appreciating Irish culture. His family and friends welcomed me into their homes, overwhelming me with gratitude for the unexpected gifts of being a Rose.  This last summer I was granted a student work visa, and for three and a half months I lived and worked in the Dublin city centre. I had the privilege to work with Ireland’s top opera coach, who was introduced to me by the County Claire Rose. In addition, I performed with the South Bay Youth Orchestra as one of three featured soloists at Christchurch Cathedral.  As Rose Kari Ann always says, “The Rose of Tralee Family is a tight knit family.” I can testify to the magnificence of the festival’s ability to unite the Irish community throughout world.  I am forever indebted to the Rose of Tralee festival for its impact in my life.

Ashley Stanbury, 2005