“It was a dream come true” - Castlebar's Kate Heneghan is the new Mayo Rose

The newly-crowned Mayo Rose has said she is ‘still in total’ shock after winning the prestigious pageant on Saturday night.

Kate Heneghan, who hails from a Castlebar, was speaking to The Mayo News less than 48 hours after winning this year’s competition, which took place in the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris.

The 27-year-old hails from a well-known musical family and wowed the audience with an original harp composition called ‘Bealtaine’.

Master of Ceremonies, Ollie Turner, quizzed her mainly about music, including an incident where she found herself stuck on a cruise ship at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She will now go onto represent Mayo at Rose of Tralee International Festival in August.

“I’m still in total shock, just disbelief,” said Ms Heneghan, who was sponsored by Midwest Radio.

Asked why she wanted to be in the competition, Ms Heneghan said she was inspired to enter by former Rose of Tralee Aoibheann Ní Shúillebhain.

Ms Ní Shúillebháin, a native of Carnacon, visited Gaelscoil Raifteiri shortly after being crowned Rose of Tralee back in 2005.

Ms Heneghan, who was a student there at the time, described it as ‘kind of a memory that has stuck with me’.

“You kind of never forget the excitement of Aoibheann winning Rose of Tralee,” she said.

“I always thought ‘that’s something that I want to do’. I’ve kind of followed her career since and I was just totally inspired in that moment from when I was younger, I guess.”

Ms Heneghan, who is a well-known harpist and music teacher, currently works as a classical music content specialist for a global music streaming brand and is also a qualified personal trainer.

She said wants to use her platform as Mayo Rose advocate for music and the arts.

“I think it’s just an opportunity to be able to use the platform to advocate for whatever you believe in and to inspire young people to follow their dreams and pursue whatever they want to do.”

She described her 14 fellow roses as ‘absolutely amazing’ and ‘a really lovely and talented bunch of girls’.

“Any one of them could have gone down to Tralee to represent county Mayo on the stage in the Dome with Daithi. We’ve had a WhatsApp group going for the last, I’d say, two months. It’s been absolutely hopping. Hopefully we’ll meet up again in the next few weeks because we’ve developed great friendships and they’re a lovely, lovely and supportive bunch of women and fantastic.”

The Castlebar woman also singled out six-year-old Westport girl Fiadh Whyte, who was her 'rosebud' for the event.

“I have been teaching her for the last year and a half I’d say and she is one of the most musical little girls I have met in my life and she was playing the harp before she could hold a pencil,” Ms Heneghan said.

Ms Heneghan, who has recently been based in London, said she is already looking forward to flying the Mayo flag in the Dome this coming August.

“I was just delighted and honoured that the judges put their faith in me to represent the county,” she said.

“It was a dream come true and I’m thrilled to be heading down there in August. I was in total disbelief.”