Castlebar’s Kate Heneghan ready for Rose of Tralee

IN you can play several instruments, teach music to small kids, be a personal trainer and present your own radio show, then public appearances should be a doddle.

No better woman to juggle life than Castlebar native Kate Heneghan, who is hotly tipped to take home the most sought-after piece of headgear in the land on Tuesday evening. 

We are of course referring to the tiara won by the winner of the International Rose of Tralee Festival, where Mayo will once again be represented by one of its most talented and accomplished daughters.

Since becoming the Mayo Rose, her white sash has graced nearly every launch, function, race meeting, fair day and local pageant in the county. She even got to meet the Taoiseach in Ballinrobe last Thursday on the invitation of former Rose and now MEP Maria Walsh.

“I’m a really extroverted person, I love going out and meeting new people. I really jumped at every opportunity I’ve been given this summer and I’ve had an absolute blast,” Kate told The Mayo News.

She even got to visit Brussels to launch the city’s branch of Comhaltas, something that is particularly close to her heart.

Adrenelin

THE daughter of an ex-Ballintubber Céili Band member, Kate has been playing music as long as she’s been able to write.

Hailing from a family steeped in music – her sisters Maggie and Kate and brother Paddy all sing and play – Kate can turn her hand to a harp as easily as she can turn it to a piano or a fiddle.

She began teaching herself at the age of 15, and soon decided that music was the career for her. Her parents gave their blessing on the condition that she obtain a degree. Today she a bachelor’s and a masters in music – and a PhD on the to-do list.

Bar the pandemic years, she’s spent her entire young adult life gigging and performing. Lately, she’s also taken up presenting a morning radio music show on Midwest Radio.

In a previous interview with this newspaper from her pre-Mayo Rose days, Kate remarked: “It’s when I’m on stage that I’m at my happiest.”

Shooting the breeze with Daithi below in the Dome will be second nature to her so?

She chuckles at the suggestion, before saying: “Ya I hope so. I’ll definitely be buzzing off the adrenaline and everything… it’ll be a huge moment in my life, and I’m going to embrace it and enjoy every moment, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be standing on the Rose of Tralee stage.”

Extended family

WHETHER it’s wearing a Mayo Rose sash or playing the harp – or both, as the case will be next Monday evening – Kate clearly loves being on stage. But she loves teaching music equally so.

Blessed to have been taught at the hands of traditional musician John Kilkenny, his late brother Noel, harpist Lisa Canny and Finola Higgins from Mayo School of Music, Kate carries a grá for passing the ceoil onto the next generation.

“I absolutely love music teaching and I think whatever job I have I will always, always teach It’s a really, really fulfilling part of my life, and I really consider my students extended family,” she offers.

“Some of them I started teaching when they were eight and nine and they’re 18 and 19 now. So I would count them among my closest friends. And I suppose I’m at my happiest when I’m on stage and when I’m performing and when I’m sharing my love of music with others, whether that be on stage teaching or more recently in a radio studio, any kind of sphere.”

Certainly no shortage of accomplishments there. A small wonder then that she’s been installed as the bookie’s favourite to follow in the footsteps of her inspiration, Aoibheann Ní Shúilleabháin.

No nerves

SURELY the nerves are starting to kick in? “Not at all,” replies a confident Kate, speaking from Wexford, where she’d been mixing and mingling with her fellow Roses at the start of the pre-festival Rose Tour.

“My main focus right now is just getting to know all of the girls and make friendships and build amazing memories that I’ll have for a lifetime,” she says.

“I’ve only known them for about 30 hours and there’s already so many bonds forming because of this intense bubble. It’s amazing. That’s definitely the main focus right now.”

Going around on jollies with people you’re supposed to be competing against is not something she finds too peculiar either.

“The girls are absolutely incredible, with amazing stories, really really inspiring stories, and they’re super accomplished women. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s actually not a cliché. It’s just a fact,” Kate says.

“It does not feel like a competition. Right now, we all feel like we’ve won already in getting to Tralee. We’re just enjoying every minute, and I think that’s the priority for everyone. There’s no competitiveness whatsoever.”

 _{Kate Heneghan pictured on the night of her selection as Mayo Rose with two of the 'rosebuds' on the night Fiadh Whyte (6) and Mia Herron (10)}

Inspirational winners

THE Rose of Tralee Festival began way back in 1959 as a madcap idea cobbled together in a local pub.

Since then, socially and economically, Ireland has changed dramatically, even beyond recognition, in some quarters. Yet the format of the Rose of Tralee has remained largely untouched.

This has prompted some to publicly question the purpose and format of such competitions in today’s society.

Some dismiss it as a frivolous ‘Lovely Girls Competition’ while others say the competitors are not fully representative of Irish society.

Kate Heneghan believes that the festival has in fact changed to reflect modern Irish society.

“If you look at the trajectory of the winners of the Rose of Tralee festival in the last 20 years many of those women have become inspirational figures in Irish society and they are role models. People look up to them all over the world,” she says.

“The Irish diaspora globally looks up to these inspirational women, because they are [inspirational]. I don’t think there’s anything outdated or old-fashioned about that. I think it should be celebrated and I’m delighted to be a part of it.”

Whoever takes the tiara from the Dome, Kate hopes that she may inspire others by her deeds.

“If you want to be a musician, go for that. If you want to do something else, go for it. I think anyone can achieve what they want to achieve if they have the bravery to pursue their dream, to not care what other people think and to follow their heart.”