THOMAS Lynch, a business consultant from Castleisland, Co Kerry topped the poll among Roses and Rose Escorts to become the 2017 Rose Escort of the Year at the Rose of Tralee International Festival.
Dáithí Ó Sé announced the result live on RTÉ One television last night in the Festival Dome and presented him with a cheque for €1,000.
There are 64 Rose Escorts at this year’s Festival and Thomas was paired with the Kilkenny Rose, Tara Roche for the first three days of the Festival, followed by the Dubai Rose, Lisa O’Donohue for the remainder of the event in Tralee.
Thomas, who was sponsored by Grant Thornton, said: “It’s uplifting to see how the children and the town interact with the Roses and the joy that they are experiencing. When we pull out a Rose’s chair, when we hold their hands coming down off the bus and when you see them kind of giggle and look back at the other Rose and say, ‘Oh, I could get used to this…’, that kind of lifts our spirits. It means we are doing something right and we are making the week magical for them.”
Thomas is passionate about rugby, particularly tag rugby, and while he played basketball and tennis from a young age, he enjoyed trampolining in college before discovering the exciting world of rugby a few years later.
Daniel McLaughlin, a carpenter from Donegal sponsored by McLaughlin Taylor Dry-lining and Paul Fitzgerald, a radio presenter from Limerick, sponsored by Gretta Gibbs and Limerick’s Live 95fm were also shortlisted for the Rose Escort of the Year award.
Nearly 200 men aged between 21 and 30 applied to become Escorts at this year’s Rose of Tralee International Festival and following a detailed interview process, the final 64 were selected to take part in a Boot Camp weekend in Kerry to help them prepare for a busy week at the Festival.
Applications are now being accepted to become Rose Escorts in 2018 and full details are available from www.roseoftralee.ie.
