It was billed as the "Not The Rose of Tralee" evening - and with TD Dr Jim McDaid waddling along the catwalk in diving suit and flippers and singer Daniel O'Donnell almost baring all, it was a far cry from the world famous Co Kerry event.
But the participants in the "Not The Rose" charity event at Letterkenny, Co Donegal, treated their 700 fans to a hilarious night which didn't end until yesterday's early hours.
The judges, who included former Miss Ireland Natasha Nic Ghairbheith, country music star Philomena Begley and Daniel's singer sister Margo, just couldn't figure out what category Jim McDaid was contesting when he lifted a foot to wave a flippered greeting at them.
Eventually, with tongues firmly in cheek, they declared him the Most Debonair.
Philomena Begley reckoned Daniel O'Donnell was over-dressed when he appeared in shorts and top. She abandoned all pretence of neutrality and called out to him to "show more body".
She even got up on stage to help him get his top off. It was enough to win Daniel the title of the man with the "Best 'Come to Bed' Eyes".
Comedy male stripper Bernard McHugh, former star of Cilla Black's TV programme Blind Date, bared even more than Daniel and was acclaimed Sexiest Man.
The contest was the opening event in a planned series of fundraisers with a €500,000 target to build a state-of-the-art cancer clinic in Co Donegal. The "Not The Rose" realised €20,000.
A recently established cross-community voluntary group, called the North West Wellness Centre Committee (NWWCC), aims to have the centre in place by spring 2008 to provide community breast screening with triple assessment for the people of the north west.
At present, BreastCheck is not available in the region and when it is, it will screen women only between the ages of 50 and 64.
Donegal women have to travel to Belfast for private screening and if they are outside the HSE screening age, they will have to continue to travel indefinitely.
There is a waiting time for some women of up to two years for scans - which require journeys to Dublin or Galway.
When completed, the clinic will house a breast screening service and a host of diagnostic services such as day care cancer services, counselling for cancer sufferers and their families, health, dietary and preventative advice.
The committee says all profits from the centre will be reinvested back into clinic services.
"Not The Rose" organiser, Letterkenny businesswoman Deirdre Grant, said: "It is not acceptable that the Donegal community has to wait for scans and screening which, in this day and age, are essential in the early detection of cancer.
"It is a human right to have access locally to regular scanning in order to minimise effects and prolong and even save life."
