‘I feel I have really found my voice’

When Rosemount’s Rachel Duffy was crowned International Rose of Tralee on August 23 last, she can still recall “the fright and shock” of hearing her name being called.

Fast forward to five months later and she admits there are days when she still finds it “almost surreal” that she was catapulted into the spotlight literally overnight. “I don’t think anything can ever really prepare you for an experience like that,” she says. “To be honest, it was very overwhelming at the start but thankfully I can look back at that night now and see how much I have grown and matured as a person since then.”

Not only has the soft-spoken NUI graduate become a household name across Ireland since her big win, but the Rose of Tralee brand stretches across the globe with Rose Centres in places as far away as Australia, Dubai and almost every city in the United States.

“I don’t think I actually realised the magnitude of the Rose of Tralee until after I won and I can vividly recall having the RTE cameras in my bedroom in Tralee the next morning and I was thinking to myself ‘how did I manage to pull this one off?’ I think I was still in total shock.”

As somebody who admits to being more comfortable “fading into the background” the past few months have been a steep learning curve for Rachel Duffy, but she says the only way to learn anything is to be “thrown in at the deep end” even if the experience is way outside your comfort zone.

There were many days when the newly-crowned Rose of Tralee was riddled with self-doubt and felt she was “not cut out for the role” but she thanks God that she is surrounded by a wonderful family and great friends, and also adds that the wider Rose organisation is “like a second family and could not be more supportive.”

One of the things she struggled most with in the early days of the demanding role was the fact that she felt everybody looked on her as being someone who knew everything just because she was now the International Rose of Tralee. “Even though it is amazing and such a privilege, I often used to think ‘what am I doing here?’ and I think it took at least two weeks for me to realise how much my life had changed.”

Rachel says she is “so proud” of how far she has come since those early days. “I am growing in confidence all the time and I feel I have really found my voice,” she says, “because everybody has a voice and I think sometimes we - and especially women - lack the confidence to use it, but now that I have found my voice I don’t think anybody will be able to take it away from me.”

Having suffered with anxiety in her earlier years, Rachel Duffy says it is “extremely important” for people to look after their mental health. “If you told 18-year-old me that I would be doing this job it would have been unthinkable,” she says, “because part of having anxiety is feeling insecure and second-guessing yourself all the time, and I was someone who bottled everything up for years, but I now realise how resilient and capable I really am.”

She feels part of her anxiety stems from the fact that she lost her beloved mother, Cathy, in 2008, when she was just nine years old, but she credits her Dad, Eamonn, with whom she has a very close bond, along with her family and the close-knit community of Rosemount for her loving and supportive upbringing.

While becoming Rose of Tralee is a privilege, Rache Duffy points out that it is “also a job” and one of her first trips outside Ireland as the new Rose was to Kolkata in India for eight days with the Hope Foundation last October which she says was “a huge culture shock.”

Reflecting on the trip she feels it “could not have come at a better time because, after a really hectic couple of months in Ireland, nobody knew or cared who I was in Kolkata and I found it really peaceful and most of the time I was wearing the Hope t-shirt like everybody else and was just helping out in any way I could.”

Volunteering had always been on Rachel’s radar, but she never either had “the time or the means” to do it until she became Rose of Tralee. “My sister spent some time volunteering in Uganda and my Dad volunteered with the Niall Mellon Foundation, so it was always something I wanted to do, so I was delighted to get to go to Kolkata and see the wonderful work the Hope Foundation does,” she says.

The trip was an eye-opener for the young Rosemount woman. “It made me realise how very lucky I am, and how we all take so much for granted like education and healthcare,” she says, adding that even the most “basic necessities” are denied to the poor in India. “The only person who could communicate with me was a seven-year old girl who had a small bit of English because she was the only one in the community who got the chance to go to school, nobody else could even read or write.”

In complete contrast, Rachel and all her fellow Rose of Tralee contestants (many of who are now great friends, she says) were invited to Frankfurt by the German Rose Centre to perform the annual switch-on of the Christmas lights which was “a real fun trip” and she is looking forward to going to New York to represent the Rose of Tralee in the St Patrick’s Day Parade. “I have booked two weeks in the States and other Roses have told me it will be a full-on schedule, but I am really looking forward to it,” she says.

In between her trips, Rachel has been well feted at home, especially in her native Westmeath. Some of the many highlights were the hugely-emotional homecoming to Rosemount after her win, a Civic Reception by Westmeath County Council, switching on the Christmas lights in Mullingar and returning to her old alma mater, Moate Community School, for a special presentation during the annual musical. “I was 14 when I took part in my first school musical, so it was so nice that they invited me back for a presentation during the week of the musical,” she says. There are also regular trips to nursing homes around the Midlands as well as local schools and clubs and next month Rachel will travel to Paris “to be the godmother of a new Brittany Ferries ship which is being launched.”

“My family and friends keep me grounded and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful support network around me,” she says. “They celebrate the good times with me and are also there when things get a bit overwhelming.”

As for life after the Rose of Tralee, Rachel Duffy says she will “definitely return to education” and is currently looking at a number of post-graduate degree courses. “I think I have broadened my horizons considerably so I don’t know what direction I will take.”

Becoming International Rose of Tralee has given Rachel Duffy some of “the most defining moments” of her life so far and, despite the rocky start, she says she “wouldn’t change a thing,”