My first blog post - Rose of Tralee International Festival Fans Club Blog
Rose of Tralee International Festival - Fans Club Blog
Hello. My name is Liam Holton. Some of you might know me as the head admin of the Facebook fan group "Rose of Tralee International Festival - Fans Club", which to this date has over 2,000 members so far. Making a fan blog site was something new that I wanted to try for 2026, so here I am.
I feel for the first blog post, I wanted to make a post where all my group members, and any blog readers here would want to get to know me a little more personally. So, here goes.
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia USA in April 1997, to Irish parents. My mother is from Castlebar, County Mayo, and my father is from Longwood, County Meath. Nearly a year later, my parents decided to pack up their old life in the states and we returned to Ireland. After brief stays in Meath and Mayo, my parents eventually found their feet getting jobs in the south east and we moved to Mooncoin, County Kilkenny, where my two younger siblings, my brother Gerard and sister Fiona were born. Another interesting fact about me is that in late childhood/early adolescence, I was diagnosed with autism, a form of autism called Asperger Syndrome. It's a part of my life but it doesn't ultimately define who I am as a person.
Growing up, I always enjoyed watching every type of entertainment on TV, be it sports, music events etc etc. Rose of Tralee and Eurovision were always some of the big things to watch at home. In fact, I remember the first time we all watched the Rose of Tralee would've been around 2005, when the Mayo Rose for that year won, my mam was delighted!
From then on, Rose of Tralee was always on every year at home. I even always watched things like Eurovision, football and rugby World Cups, GAA etc etc.
Outside of running the Rose of Tralee fans group on FB, I enjoy things like going to the gym, playing sports, watching TV, listening to music, playing the drums, using social media, spending time with my family, learning new things and travelling.
What lead me to creating the fans club? I have previously had experience in fan groups on Facebook for different things, like Eurovision, football, rugby, GAA, etc. I knew I wanted to make a group for something too. In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging, the Rose of Tralee was cancelled. In August that year, I decided to try making a fan group for that on FB. I had no expectations going into creating it, but 5 years later, with the festival back up and running after COVID since 2022, and over 2,000 members in there, it truly has been a blast organising it and running it.
I have also been down there at the festival a few times. The first time I went down there was in 2009, when my family were on holiday in Kerry, in nearby Dingle, which is nearly an hour away from Tralee. We went down one evening, soaking up the atmosphere, seeing the amusement park rides, and myself, my siblings and a bunch of other kids even got a photo taken with the 2008 Rose Aoife Kelly. I went down again in 2017, when I was part of a camp group that was staying at a nearby adventure and activities center in Killarney. We all went out to the amusements in Tralee for our last night before going home the next day. And only last year in 2025, I decided to go down for one day to Tralee for the show night on the Monday night which was also fun! I had a great blast that day, travelling down with my mum and my aunt, her sister, who lives in Dublin. It was also fun to meet people from the group in person too, some for the first time and some who I had met previously. I have some photos down below of my times in Tralee over the years.
I also know some people who have been on the stage as Roses over the years. For example, Sarah Kearns, the Kilkenny Rose for 2016, is from my hometown of Mooncoin. My friend Kirsten Mate Maher represented Waterford in 2018 and was crowned the Rose of Tralee for that year. Kirsten and I were in secondary school together in Ferrybank, which is on the Waterford/Kilkenny border. We did our Junior Certs, and then I went ahead to 5th year, and she did TY.
I also know a few girls who have took part in selection events, or have plans in the future to take part in selection events, so who knows one day they might be there in Tralee!
So that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this read, and I can't wait to do more blog posts here in future, covering all different Rose of Tralee stories. If you're someone who has been a Rose or has been involved, and you would like me to write up something about you, please get in touch and let me know.
Thank you, and see you all in the next post.
Facebook fan group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1280950768910226
Liam Holton.
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