Gowns of Glory: Rose of Tralee dresses through the decades

This exhibition charts the changing styles in the dresses worn by the winning Roses over the past decades. This year, Kerry County Museum is delighted to display the dresses in the fabulous Rose Hotel. Museum staff will be at hand daily from 10am until 7pm to have a chat. This drop-in event is suitable for all ages and abilities. Free entry - no booking required, all are welcome.

Good to know: From the Rose Hotel it is only a short stroll through Tralee Town Park to Tralee library, where their popular Rose of Tralee memorabilia exhibition will be on display. Along the way, you might want to visit the Rose Garden and Rose of Tralee statue or drop into Kerry County Museum at the Ashe Memorial Hall for a free visit of the Medieval Experience & Archaeology Hall. The Rose Hotel, Tralee Library and Kerry County Museum are connected by Tralee Town Park and located within a short distance from each other.

Did you know? The Rose of Tralee Festival is held every year during the month of August. It takes its inspiration from the 19th century ballad of the same name, and the centrepiece is a competition, broadcast live on national TV, in which a young woman is crowned as the Rose of Tralee. Entrants come from over sixty Rose Centres globally, and the winning Rose represents the Festival and Ireland in a year-long ambassadorial role at home and abroad. The competition is neither a beauty pageant nor a talent contest, but it combines elements of both in the search for a young woman who possesses the elusive quality expressed in the song as “the truth in her eyes ever dawning.”

In the early years the Roses either made their own dresses or bought “off-the-rack”. From 1978 the competition was broadcast live on RTÉ and this had a major impact in the following decades. Designers became keen to get their styles shown on one of the nation’s most watched TV programmes, and many of the gowns on display were designed specifically for the occasion.