Ádh mór ort to the recently crowned Tyrone Rose Sinead Taggart in her efforts to become Rose of Tralee. Sinead is the daughter of well known Football and Hurling referee in the County Mark Taggart and we wish her the best of luck over the coming months prior to the event.
A Clanabogan lady is hoping to be the second ever ‘Tyrone Rose’ to make it to the final of the International Rose of Tralee festival, which is in its 55th year and will see 32 Roses converge on Tralee in August.
27 year-old Sinead Taggart, well known across the county and Ireland for her singing talent, never mind her vivacious personality, is currently working with the Western Health & Social Trust, whilst juggling a professional singing sareer with local band Atmosphere. She was crowned the Tyrone Rose for 2014 at the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown in front of a packed house on Wednesday 23rd April 2014 as well as many online followers as the event was streamed LIVE on the internet courtesy of Silvermist Media based in Fintona.
Sinead along with the 14 other Roses did their friends, families and communities extremely proud, giving the audience a fantastic nights entertainment with all their talents on display. A very accomplished performer, Sinead gave the audience a great rendition of the ‘Bright Blue Rose’, a very fitting song for a beautiful lady. She also wowed the audience and judges with her bubbly personality and on stage presence and banter with MC Jimmy Cowan, taking the coveted title of Tyrone Rose for 2014.
Sinead was chosen out of 15 Roses to represent Tyrone in the upcoming Regional Finals, which are due to take place in Portlaoise at the end of May. Seven women will then be chosen at the Regional Finals to progress to the International Festival in Tralee in August.
“I’m delighted to have been selected as the ambassador for Tyrone and hope that I can represent the fourteen other girls to the best of my ability in Portlaoise, adding her thanks to everyone involved with the Tyrone heat”, said Sinead.
“I’ve always thought about being a Rose, and due to other commitments over the past few years I never got the chance to take part, and when the opportunity came up this year I just went for it, and was delighted to be able to represent my sponsor Sallys of Omagh as their Rose. I will be picking a Charity to work with in the year ahead to raise vital funds and will embark on fundraising activities over the coming weeks and months, so watch this space. I am so glad I got involved, and I am now really looking forward to the next stage in Portlaoise.”
Sinead is taking over from 23-year-old Joanne O’Neill who was been a fantastic ambassador for the county and gave a ringing endorsement of the festival as she addressed the crowd at the Tyrone selection, wishing Sinead all the best for her year ahead.
The Tyrone Rose selection event, now in it’s 9th year has continued to grow in stature thanks to the hard work of the Tyrone Rose committee. Speaking on the success of this year’s event, Tyrone Co-ordinator Colin Hampsey, said, “We are delighted with the success of this year’s event, and the calibre of the Roses this year has been exceptional, we have a wonderful new Rose in Sinead Taggart and have no doubt she will be an amazing representative of the 14 other magnificent Roses who took part, and follow in the footsteps of the amazing 2013 Tyrone Rose Joanne O’Neill and all our previous Tyrone Roses.”
We are hopeful that our new Tyrone Rose Sinead can fly the flag for us in Portlaoise and make it to Tralee in August. I would urge everyone to get behind Sinead and support her in the year ahead.
Colin continued by saying, “Without the support of our Rose Sponsors and our main event Sponsors we could not run part of the Rose of Tralee festival here in Tyrone. Our sincere gratitude must go to our main sponsors, Rocwell Water, Cookstown Textile Recyclers, also to the other main contributors including the Greenvale Hotel, Tyrone Courier, Kindle Occassions, Donnelly Bros, Corrigan Opticians, Boots, Flowers By Arrangement in Dungannon, Pretty Pieces by Pamela, Lavender Day Spa, The Jungle NI, Solace Hair & Beauty in Maghera, Fit For Life & Club Energy in Omagh, Killyhevlin Hotel Enniskillen, Serephina Boutique in Cookstown, Newell Stores, Wedding Parties & More, Brenda Campbell Millinery in Armagh, Raspberry Hill Detox, An Creagán for hosting the Roses visit, Thai Arts NI and Cookstown District Council.
Also without our 15 Rose Sponsors we could not have held the event, and to them we are truly indebted:- Michael Doherty Haulage in Omagh, Scott Contracts in Cookstown, Hazel Wand Theatre School in Omagh, Main Street in Omagh, Ace Registrations in Dromore, McAleers Bar in Dungannon, Dún Uladh Centre in Omagh, Motor Neurone Disease Association, I Dance Irish in Crossgar, Tesab Engineering Ltd in Omagh, Sallys of Omagh, Kavanagh’s Supervalu in Strabane, Care Circle Group in Dunmurry, Fit For Life & Club Energy in Omagh and Strabane A.Y.E. , not too mention our generous Raffle Prize sponsors.
Supporters can keep up to date with Sinead’s year ahead by logging onto www.tyroneroseoftralee.com or joining the centres Facebook page TyroneRoseOfTralee or following on Twitter. All eyes are now on Portlaoise in early June and hopefully a Tyrone Rose in Tralee.