“The business of being a [twenty-first century] Rose”: racial capitalism in the Rose of Tralee pageant

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 1959, the Rose of Tralee International Festival has invited women of Irish ancestry to compete in Tralee, Co. Kerry for the title of the Rose of Tralee, an honour granted to women prepared to act as a figurehead and an ambassador for Ireland and the diaspora. While Irish society has undergone many enormous changes since the Festivals founding, one of which being the increased multiculturalism of the population, the festival’s relationship with tourism, economic revitalisation, and capitalism has remained constant. Using discourse analysis to examine the intersections of racial capitalism, diaspora, and womanhood in Ireland, this article examines how, and why, biracial Roses became symbols of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and the ideological struggles Ireland contends with when it comes to negotiating race, gender, diaspora, and economy in the twenty-first century.