All roads lead to Tralee as Roses set to take to the stage tonight

Paul McRingo | Lovely Girls Correspondent

Thousands of people lined the streets of Tralee yesterday to welcome the 32 Roses in this year’s Rose of Tralee contest.

Dublin Rose Suad Mooge was favourite with the bookies all week. The headscarf-wearing Muslim woman was expected to win comfortably as none of the judges would dare vote against her and run the risk of being labelled Islamophobic.

However, that all changed when Longford Rose Paddy Delaney was confirmed as a late entry. Competition rules state that women or anyone who claims to be a woman can enter the Rose of Tralee (yes, really) and Paddy is now hot favourite to take home the crown.

It’s a tough one for the judges but today’s official standards and rules on offensiveness state that transphobia is worse than Islamophobia so Paddy gets the vote. The other Roses are all just straightforward boring white women so they can all feck off. Get with the times, ladies. Jeez!

The 2026 Rose of Tralee begins on RTE1 at 9.35 tonight.