New Zealand’s Keely O'Grady takes Rose of Tralee 2024 crown: ‘It was like an out-of-body experience’

14 more Roses took to the stage in Kerry tonight, before the winner was announced

Keely O’Grady (21), a fourth-year Speech and Language Therapy student at Canterbury University, has become the third New Zealand Rose to take the title.

Speaking to the Irish Independent just after the show at the MTU Kerry Sports Academy, she said: “When I heard my name called, it felt unreal. It was like an out-of-body experience.”

The 2024 International Rose of Tralee Keely O’Grady selected on stage at the Kerry Sports Academy, MTU during the Rose of Tralee International Festival on Tuesday night. Photo: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD

“The shock comes from the fact that I’m standing alongside these 31 beautiful, amazing, talented women, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

“That could have been any one of them, and the fact that the judges saw something in me while standing alongside those other 31 incredible women that really means a lot to me,” she added.

Mrs O’Grady said she didn’t expect to win the title of the Rose of Tralee.

“Not that I don’t believe in myself or think that I’m capable of it, but I just think that every single one of those women out there had something incredible to offer.

“I just thought it was a one-in-32 chance for any single one of us. It’s a bit of a small chance at the end of the day,” she added.

Keely O’Grady was presented with her sash by the 2023 Rose of Tralee Róisín Wiley on Thursday night. She said winning the title “means making her family proud”.

The 2024 International Rose of Tralee is Keely O’Grady selected on stage at the Kerry Sports Academy, MTU during the Rose of Tralee International Festival TV Rose Selection night on Tuesday 20th of August.

Photo By : Domnick Walsh

“It’s harder in New Zealand to stay connected with your Irish culture and your Irish heritage, we’re so far away on the other side of the world, and for me, that half of my Irish family, and it’s something that you have to actively go out and seek to connect with.

“Whereas people in Ireland, I feel like that’s something they may take for granted because you’re surrounded by it on a day-to-day basis.

“For me, it means an opportunity to hold this title and celebrate my Irishness at a level that I wasn’t able to before, and I think it will bring me a lot closer to my family and a lot closer to my Irish culture, my Irish heritage,” she said.

The winner added “that no one in New Zealand knows” what the Rose of Tralee is but she would explain it as a “beauty pageant that’s not about beauty” but about “ambitions, aspirations, self-worth and talent”.

“It’s about the strength of woman, and it’s about celebrating a shared culture, connection and heritage that we all have, all the girls that enter the competition,” she said.

She said she received loads of support from her family and friends throughout the festival.

“My seven beautiful flatmates that I live with are the most incredible women – plus these 31 new women that I met.

“When I told them I was entering it, they were so supportive. I was doing fashion shows in the lounge for them, showing them every single dress that I bought and talking about all the things that I was learning about Rose of Tralee along the way.

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“There was a huge amount of support from them. And then my family supports me in absolutely everything I do, there’s nothing I’ve ever done where they haven’t been my number one supporters,” she added.

What connects Ireland and New Zealand are “very similar cultures” and “similar experiences with colonisation”, she said.

“That’s something that I’ve expressed throughout my time in Ireland, during the Rose tour and the festival, talking to people who would come up to me and share their experiences of being in New Zealand.

“Every single one of them would pretty much say that Ireland and New Zealand are very similar in terms of their people, their food, their landscape.

“New Zealand and Ireland have really similar experiences with colonisation and the cultural revitalisation efforts that they’re putting in place today in terms of revitalising the indigenous languages, Te Reo Māori and Irish, traditions and arts, that is something that is reflected very similarly in both countries.

“Showing the interconnectedness of these two cultures just shows the strength that Irishness has, the fact that it can be so well represented when intertwined with other cultures like Māori and New Zealand,” she said.

After the announcement, Mrs O’Grady said: “We’ve only had two New Zealand Roses selected as the International Rose of Tralee, the last in the 1980s, this really means so much to me.”

The 2024 Rose left the MTU just after winning on Tuesday night for celebration across the streets of Tralee for the Midnight Madness and a fireworks display.