Kerry and Derry look set to compete for a different kind of All-Ireland title next week, as the Rose of Tralee returns. Despite recent disappointment on the football field, representatives from both counties have emerged as the two favourites to win the international festival’s coveted title. BBC producer Darcy Taylor, 25, from Bellaghy, is the 2024 Derry Rose, while paediatric radiographer Emer Dineen, from Castlegregory, will represent Kerry.
And Ms Taylor had kind words for the show’s presenter yesterday, telling the Irish Daily Mail: ‘My granny loves Daithí Ó Sé. Like, I mean, she’s in love with the man.’ She also said her work with BBC Radio Foyle initially inspired her to enter the competition.
Ms Taylor, a graduate of Queens University Belfast and Ulster University Derry, works as an assistant content producer for the Mark Patterson Show. She said ‘We had the previous [Derry] Rose Áine Morrison on [the show]. And just the way she talked about it, I was like, this would be an amazing experience to go and do So, I thought, you know what, let’s go for it.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ BBC Radio Foyle was threatened with closure last year until a grassroots campaign saved the station. The Derry Rose said: ‘In my work, that’s what I aim to do.
I aim to give people a voice. So, it was just really important that that was able to continue, and that people had a platform to be able to speak about issues affecting the hundreds that live in.