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ABSTRACT
Since 1959, the Rose of Tralee International Festival has invited women of Irish ancestry to compete in Tralee, Co. Kerry for the title of the Rose of Tralee, an honour granted to women prepared to act as a figurehead and an ambassador for Ireland and the diaspora. While Irish society has undergone many enormous changes since the Festivals founding, one of which being the increased multiculturalism of the population, the festival’s relationship with tourism, economic revitalisation, and capitalism has remained constant. Using discourse analysis to examine the intersections of racial capitalism, diaspora, and womanhood in Ireland, this article examines how, and why, biracial Roses became symbols of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and the ideological struggles Ireland contends with when it comes to negotiating race, gender, diaspora, and economy in the twenty-first century.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. I use mixed-race, multiracial, and biracial interchangeably as all Roses up until this point have been biracial.
2. Fanning, “Multiculturalism in Ireland,” 178.
3. Robinson, Black Marxism.
4. Chiyoko King-O’Riain, “Making the Perfect Queen,” 74.
5. Velmet, “Beauty and Big Business.”
6. Ibid., 67.
7. Ibid., 68.
8. Cohen et al., “Introduction,” 3–4.
9. Joseph, Critical Race Theory and Inequality in the Labour Market, 35–36.
10. Ibid., 36. Other examples of this include Natasha Barnes study of national and racial identity formation in the 1986 Miss Jamaica Beauty Pageant and Malia McAndrew’s study of Japanese American Beauty Pageants and Minstrel Shows in World War II Untied States; Barnes, “Face the Nation”; and McAndrews, “Japanese American Beauty Pageants and Minstrel Shows.”
11. King-O’Riain, “Making the Perfect Queen,” 80, originally found in Chiyoko King-O’Riain, Pure Beauty.
12. Cohen et al., “Introduction,” 10, originally found in Johnson, “Negotiating Style and Mediating Beauty.”
13. Dunphy Brady, “Rose of Tralee,” 19–20; and Zuelow, “Developing Irish Tourism, 1939–1958,” 59–68.
14. Ó Cinnéide, “The Nonprofit Origins and Impact of Riverdance”; Quinn, “Problematising ‘Festival Tourism”; and Walsh, “Homelysexuality and the ‘Beauty’ Pageant,” 198.
15. Walsh, “Homelysexuality and the ‘Beauty’ Pageant,” 201.
16. Ibid.,198.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.; During the Festival, betting and gambling on Roses is a lucrative business bringing in over half a million Euro to betting company Paddy Power over the course of the event. For this reason, the company describes it as “The Grand National of Novelty Betting.” Paddy Power’s statistical analysis of odds state there is only a 10% chance of women winning whose last name is defined as “Not Irish at all.” Paddy Power odd’s relay the racialisation and othering of particular people in discourses of Irishness. Not having an “Irish” name comes up frequently in discourses surrounding biracial Irish women in the Rose of Tralee Festival and Irish society more generally; SBC News, “Paddy Power Releases Comprehensive Study on Rose of Tralee Festival”; and “Kerry Rose Among the Favorites to Claim Crown.”
19. For more in depth analysis of winners Luzveminda O’Sullivan, Clare Kambamettu, and Kirsten Maher please see: Moynihan, “’The Lost Apostrophe?’”; and Chiyoko King-O’Riain, “How the Irish Became More Than White.”
20. Fanning, “Multiculturalism in Ireland.”
21. O’Connor, “‘Colleens and Comely Maidens,” 146; and Moynihan, “’The Lost Apostrophe?’” 43.
22. McFeely, “Nationalism, Race and Class in The Colleen Bawn,” 17; and O’ Connor, “‘Colleens and Comely Maidens,’” 145.
23. Ibid.,146.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid., 153; and Ibid.,150.
26. Medb Ruane in Younge, “The Truth in Her Eyes,” 112.
27. Waldron, “How Ireland’s Inner Beauty Pageant Is Getting a Makeover.”
28. See note 12 above.
29. Chiyoko King-O’Riain, “Making the Perfect Queen,” 80.
30. See note 27 above.
31. See note 2 above.
32. Ibid.,181.
33. Ibid.
34. Joseph, Critical Race Theory and Inequality in the Labour Market, 53.
35. McWilliams, “McGregor Embodies the New Ireland.”
36. Fanning, “Multiculturalism in Ireland,”180.
37. See: Moynihan, “‘The Lost Apostrophe’?”; and King-O’Riain, “How the Irish Became More Than White.”
38. Negarty, “Aunt Adi Backs Black Beauty.”
39. Ibid.; and Staff Reporter, “Philly’s Biracial Rose at Ease in 2 Cultures.”
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. The Kerryman, “First African American Rose from Philly.”
44. Chan, “‘Kiss My Royal Irish Ass,’” 6.
45. Ibid.
46. Chiyoko King-O’Riain, “How the Irish Became More Than White,” 5.
47. Ibid.
48. Fanning, Migration and the Making of Ireland, 189.
49. See note 38 above.
50. Garcia, “Where the ‘Spicy Latina’ Stereotype Came From – And Why It’s Still Racist Today.”
51. hooks, “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance,” 21.
52. Walsh, “Homelysexuality and the ‘Beauty’ Pageant,” 197.
53. Ibid., 200.
54. Ibid.
55. Hogan, “Roses Bloom Again As ‘Doomed’ Festival Thrives.”
56. Ibid.
57. Blain, “Classy Makeover for Frocky Horror Show.”
58. News, “Filipina-Irish Is Ireland’s 53Filipina-Irish Is Ireland’s 53rd Rose of Tralee.”
59. Ibid.
60. Merueñas, “Fil-Irish Teacher Crowned ‘Rose of Tralee’ in Ireland.”
61. Coyle, “Rose Culture.”
62. See note 27 above.
63. O’ Connor, “From Unmarried Mums to the First Gay Rose.”
64. Hughes, “Former Rose of Tralee Slams Radio Presenter for ‘Nasty’ Comments.”
65. Horgan, “Mum Stephanie Is the New Cork Rose.”
66. Chiyoko King-O’Riain, “How the Irish Became More Than White,” 14.
67. Moynihan, “‘The Lost Apostrophe?’” 38.
68. Onyejelem, “Racist Attacks Won’t Stop First Afro-Irish Rose of Tralee Winner.”
69. Gibbons, “Skin Deep.”