Beverly Woman Crowned Ireland's 2016 Rose of Tralee

BEVERLY -- A rose from Beverly was crowned the 2016 International Rose of Tralee during a live broadcast in Ireland on Tuesday night.

Maggie McEldowney, 27, was selected as the Chicago Rose in May and headed to Ireland for a series of events and appearances at the International Rose of Tralee Festival in County Kerry, Ireland. McEldowney is the third Chicago Rose to win the pageant, and the first to be crowned in 29 years.

The Rose of Tralee International Festival is one of Ireland’s oldest and longest running cultural festivals, celebrating 57 years in 2016. The heart of the festival is the crowning of the Rose of Tralee, which brings together young women of Irish descent from around the world. The global celebration of Irish culture also includes street entertainment, a carnival, live concerts, theater, circus, markets, fireworks and Rose parades.

The Beverly woman was selected out of 63 contestants from around the globe, charming pageant host Dáithí Ó Sé in a live televised interview with stories of being a Chick Evans scholar and holding a flag at the famous K Club golf course. She described her background to Ó Sé as typical “South Side Irish.” Her paternal grandparents are both from Draperstown, Co Derry.

Rose of Tralee winner Maggie McEldowney

Ó Sé also surprised McEldowney with a video-taped message from her boyfriend, Chicago firefighter Jim Fitzgibbon, who could not accompany her to Tralee but wished her luck against the backdrop of the city’s skyline. She called the experience of being among the finalists “surreal.” For her talent, she sang “A Little Bit Heaven.”

McEldowney had entered the competition twice before, but three was a charm when she was crowned the 2016 Rose of Tralee on Tuesday. One of her goals for the upcoming year, was to change public perception of the festival as being just a beauty pageant.

“I would love to alter the image, just like the Roses before me have done, because it’s so much more than the glitz and the glam,” she said in an interview with The Irish Times. “Which is a wonderful part of it, it’s a beautiful aspect of the festival as well, but there’s so much more that goes into it so I look forward to creating awareness for that.”

McEldowney grew up in Beverly attending grammar school at St. Barnabas and Marist High School, from which she graduated in 2007. She is currently director of Marist’s school fund. In high school, she caddied at Ridge Country Club and won a coveted Chick Evans scholarship to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She credited Catholic education as molding her into the person she is today.

“I’m very passionate about raising awareness for Catholic education, especially at Marist High School,” she told The Irish Times. Being an alma mater I can really relate to the students I’m raising money for. It’s a career but it’s also a joy to be there every day… I work with colleagues who really teach me. They’re brilliant at what they do and I’m very lucky to be where I am today.”

She is also a board member of the Young Irish Fellowship Club, which sponsors events throughout the city to raise funds for charities and celebrate Irish culture. In 2015, she ran with Old St. Pat’s Crossroads Runners in the Chicago Marathon that works to eradicate poverty.

As the 2016 International Rose of Tralee, McEldowney will spend the next year traveling the world and representing festival, helping to bring attention to notable charities. McEldowney also congrated her fellow Roses, calling them her “64 new friends,” by hoping to represent them well.

Photos from YouTube