Balla and Shrule backing their local Roses

Balla backing their local Rose


Aoife Broderick will fly the hopes of Balla, as well as Derby, in this year’s Rose of Tralee

Though born and reared in Derby, Aoife Broderick admits it is in her mother’s hometown of Balla where she has seen the most excitement ahead of her participation in the 2014 Rose of Tralee later this month.
Aoife’s mother Dympna is a daughter of Kitty and the late Ollie McGreal from Balla and Aoife’s uncles Val and Ger run McGreal’s Butchers on Main Street in the central Mayo village.
And when Aoife was in Balla last week for the wedding of Ger’s daughter Laura, she admits to being ‘blown away’ by the reception she got from family, neighbours and friends.
“Everyone knew at the wedding I was in the Rose of Tralee, I was being introduced to everyone as the Rose,” Aoife told The Mayo News. “It’s different at home in Derby, people don’t know much about the competition. I keep getting asked over there if there’s a bikini round,” she explains, laughing.
While she is relishing every step of the journey to Tralee now, Aoife admits that was not her perspective at the outset.
“I decided to enter the Derby Rose as a Christmas present for my mother. I certainly had the wrong impression of it and thought it was just a beauty pageant which would be something which would be my worst case scenario but when I got into it I realised looks and appearance are only a small part of it. It is almost completely about your personality.
“I cannot wait for Tralee. I can’t wait for my friends in Derby who cannot make it over to see it on TV so they can figure out what all the fuss is about.
“I know it sounds corny but I think I’ve already won. I’m going to be on a ten day tour of Ireland, hang out with a great group of girls. The pressure is off already,” she adds.
After winning the Derby stage, Aoife then went to Portlaoise and qualified from the regional stage to make it as one of the 32 Rose of Tralee finalists.
“It was definitely a surprise to get through,” she admits. “My uncle Padraig (Prendergast, married to her aunt Marian) was there and I don’t think I ever saw him as excited at a Mayo match and he’s a big Mayo fan! He has a double bet on for me to win the Rose and Mayo to win Sam and he reckons he’ll die a happy man if that happens - probably with a heart attack after seeing that come true,” jokes Aoife.
Aoife turned 23 last Saturday and is currently finishing a dissertation for her Masters in Real Estate. She is due to start work with Allsops in London in September and is fitting in a ten day holiday in Hong Kong after the Rose of Tralee.
“This summer is something I’ll look back on for the rest of my life, it’s the summer I’ll be telling my grandchildren about. This is a one in a lifetime chance, I will never do anything like this again. Winning would be brilliant but I want to enjoy every second and not put any pressure on myself. I think the only pressure will be if my uncle doesn’t win his bet, I might have to pay him the price of the bet then,” she says, laughing.
Her mother Dympna moved to England in 1983, originally on a temporary basis to study midwifery but met Anthony Broderick, a Derby man of very strong Irish descent, and is there since. She remains a regular visitor to Balla and admits she is ‘extremely proud’ of Aoife while the proudest person of all is Aoife’s 89-year-old granny, Kitty.
“Granny is the proudest woman,” admits Aoife. “She keeps saying how beautiful I look and I say I must have got her genetics and she gets all embarrassed. She was telling everyone in the church at the wedding about me and I had to tell her to stop because it was Laura’s day,” chuckles Aoife.
And it will be some day in Balla if Aoife Broderick is crowned the Rose of Tralee but you get the sense that come what may, the Derby Rose will enjoy every second of the journey.

Shrule all set to support Maria
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Shrule native Maria Walsh is representing Philadelphia this year and is preparing to return home for this year’s festival. The Irish community in Philadelphia gathered at The MacSwiney Club last Friday night for a fundraiser to support Maria.
A journalism and visual media graduate of Griffith College in Dublin, Maria moved to Shrule from Boston in 1994 before returning to America in 2010 where she now works as a studio manager for clothing and lifestyle brand Anthropologie in Philadelphia.
Maria is a pioneer and a member of the Glencorrib Centre. She has volunteered many years with the Pioneer Association and No Name Club.
Maria’s parents Vincent and Noreen will be supporting her in Tralee along with her sister Eileen who is flying home from Australia especially and younger brother Mikey, while her brother Kevin will be tuning in to proceedings from Los Angeles.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Maria’s father Vincent said the family are very proud of their ‘brilliant girl’.
“We’re very proud of her for getting as far as she has. We didn’t even know she was representing Philadelphia for a long time, she just rang up one day and said ‘oh I’m the Philadelphia Rose’.
Maria is travelling home this Friday before she embarks on an all-Ireland tour with her fellow Roses.
“She’s getting everything ready for coming home and she will hopefully get to spend some time at home while she is here. We plan on climbing the Reek at some stage,” said Mr Walsh, adding that Maria’s company has been very supportive to her since she became the Philadelphia Rose.

Date for the diary
The world famous festival in Tralee takes place from August 15 to 19.