RTÉ ‘regrets’ aspects of Rose of Tralee documentary

RTÉ says it regrets its documentary on the Rose of Tralee International Festival caused upset to some contestants and will review the process for next year.

The broadcaster has come in for fierce criticism about the Road to the Dome programme and how Roses were selected for the live final.

Down Rose Fainche McCormack said she and the other Roses were “treated like animals in a circus” and the 65 Roses in the final were “manipulated, bullied and mistreated”.

She criticised the televised process in which the women were told who would be competing in the final.

The Roses were divided into two rooms; one with the 32 finalists and the other room with the 32 who were not chosen.

In a post on the Rose of Tralee Facebook page, since deleted, Ms McCormack said neither she nor the other Roses signed up "for a cheap reality television show in which our emotions would be manipulated for entertainment".

‘Bullshit detector’

Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins

wrote in

The Irish Times

on Saturday that, during filming, “my bullshit detector goes off and I surmise that this is not a documentary but reality TV”.

The Road to the Dome was made on behalf of RTÉ by Vision Independent Productions (VIP), an independent production company.

In a joint statement issued with the Rose of Tralee International Festival, RTÉ said all 65 Roses involved in the festival were aware from the outset they were being filmed at all stages in the run-up to the live television shows.

“This also included the selection process where the 65 became 32 for the live televised programmes. In advance of the show going out on Monday evening, the festival was given the opportunity to view the programme and was happy with it,” says the statement.

"We regret any upset caused by elements of the filming process for the documentary and RTÉ and the Rose of Tralee Festival have agreed to review the process for next year."

On Friday, Rose of Tralee chief executive Anthony O’Gara admitted none of the 65 Roses liked the way the selection process was conducted.

“It is not nice when we get comments that are very severe, but we have to take it on the chin. It is the first year and we have to learn,” he said. “When we do get things wrong we put our hands up.

“All would say that the Sunday morning programme was wrong. In fairness to RTÉ, we asked them to put on a separate programme and they did a very good job on it, but probably the timing of the judging and the cameras in the girls’ faces was, in retrospect, not the right thing to do.”