Father of former Rose of Tralee contestant initiates court proceedings against company that organises festival

The father of a former Rose of Tralee contestant has initiated High Court proceedings against the company that organises the festival.

Richard Henggeler is a shareholder in Kerry Rose Festival Ltd, and it is understood his proceedings, filed in the High Court on Tuesday, are aimed at securing the return of money allegedly loaned by him to the company.

When contacted on Wednesday morning by The Irish Times about the case, Anthony O’Gara, chief executive of Kerry Rose Festival, said he was unaware of it, and was not in a position to comment.

Mr Henggeler, who owns 31.1 per cent of Kerry Rose Festival Ltd, is represented by Tralee-based solicitors Cadogan O’Regan LLP, who confirmed proceedings had been initiated but said details could not be provided at this stage. The latest published accounts for the company show loans from shareholders amounted to €96,414 as of March 31st, 2022.

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Mr Henggeler is the father of the 2011 Washington DC Rose Dorothy Moriarty Henggeler, who died of a brain haemorrhage shortly before her 28th birthday. He and his wife Eibhlin brought their daughter’s body back to Ireland to be laid to rest in her mother’s hometown of Killarney.

At the time of the festival in 2011, Dorothy, known as Dott, worked as a communications co-ordinator for T Rowe Price, having graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in communications. She also worked for Tourism Ireland in New York.

A Rose Walk, with a stone memorial to Dorothy, was unveiled in Tralee in 2015.

In that same year the Henggelers, who were regular visitors to Ireland, bought the 165-bedroom Fels Point Hotel in Tralee for an undisclosed sum. The hotel was sold through the National Asset Management Agency and had a guide price of €4 million. The hotel, after extensive refurbishment and expansion, was renamed The Rose Hotel and includes Dott’s Bar, named after the Henggeler’s daughter.

Mr Henggeler had sold his company, Henggeler Computer Consultants, in late 2011, for an undisclosed sum to computer security giant Raytheon.

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