Local Roses unaffected by poem ban

Final preparations are being put in place by the Rose of Tralee hopefuls for this year’s festival.

The 12-day event gets underway this evening Kilkenny Rose Sarah Kearns and Carlow Rose Emma O’Byrne are expected to have their first exposure on stage in the festival Dome tomorrow.

The main televised show will be next Monday and Tuesday and our girls will find out on Sunday if they’ve made it that far.

However, organisers have today had to defend moves to ban poetry at the competition with the participants being asked not to recite verse as their party piece.

But speaking to KCLR this morning, the local Roses Sarah and Emma said this won’t affect them at all.