Rose of Tralee host Daithi O Se has revealed his unusual lucky rituals he has ahead of hosting the festival.
The Rose of Tralee International Festival returns to our screens tonight for the first time since 2019.
Daithi will spend two nights chatting to all 33 roses before he crowns this year's Rose of Tralee winner.
Speaking ahead of the annual competition, the father-of-one revealed he has an unusual regime when dressing himself in the hope of some luck before he goes on stage.
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He said: “The rituals then on the day like, I will always try and go to sleep between around half 5 and half 6, if I can. I had started this thing that I started very early, I was talking to one of the Kerry footballers and they once said to me that he would always put his left sock on first and then the right sock on the left and the left boot on and then right boot on.
“But I do walk around with the shirt tux, the shirt, pair of boxer shorts and then my socks before I put on my pants. It is just a thing in order that I have.
"That is the only kind of ritual I have, and it is a good luck thing that has worked out well before. It is funny if you believe in something like that, if you get a tiny thing from it, it’s great.”
Daithi admitted he gets anxious before he goes on stage, saying: “I am nervous if I am unprepared and that’s no matter what I am doing. But like for the Rose of Tralee you are so prepared, that you couldn't be nervous.
"I am apprehensive because people have a lot of time invested in these shows, particularly the roses. "And my main job is once the roses go up on stage and the roses feel happy, safe and comfortable, and feels the love from the crowd and once the roses leave, then my job is done then. I am apprehensive, I wouldn't say I am nervous, no.”
He said he feels like he has the best job in the entertainment industry.
“Hosting the Rose of Tralee is probably one of the best of them. You can say what you want, it is one of the biggest shows of the whole summer, huge interest in it, a great local interest in it being from Kerry and also it is an opportunity to go home, and it is something that I really, really like doing and it is one of the top entertainment jobs in the country when it comes to presenting – and I have it.”
Impressively, Daithi gets to know each rose before the competition, so he won’t forget their name on stage.
“Just to get to know them, themselves like there is no gimmick or anything. You just have to go to people and get to know people so there is no gimmick with that. Like a show like the Rose of Tralee, the gimmicks shine through, so you either know these people or you don't.”
The 46-year-old Today Show star hinted there will be a few “icy moments” during the show.
“We have been chatting to the roses over the past few weeks and they have made us laugh and even cry – because there is some really serious stuff inside there as well as some really heartfelt items, there is some crazy stuff inside there.
"It is a mixed bag like, it's six hours of television so it is a cross section of everything. It is a mixed bag and we have a few surprises ourselves – and a few icy moments.”
Speaking about his own icy moment, Daithi revealed that as he was preparing to drive to Dublin from his home in Galway, his car broke down and was forced to hitch a lift with a random stranger.
“I have had car trouble. I left the house at 6 o’clock in the morning. I was packed for two days of photoshoots and so on, and all of a sudden, I come to a place called Aughrim in Galway, out in the middle of the country and my car dies.
“So, pack everything into the boot of the car and then decide to go hitching because I wouldn’t leave my colleagues in RTÉ down who have put a lot of work into it and putting things together.
“So, listen I gave my youth hitching around, I used to hitchhike up and down from Limerick to college so, do you know what it was kind of exciting. People don’t do it [hitching] as much anymore because everyone has cars but back then sure nobody had a car going to college when we were younger. So you either got the bus or you went hitching.
“So, yeah, when I made the decision to go hitching I was like this is great. I was like ‘you know this is going to be a bit of fun.’ The fourth car stopped and then this guy was going to Offaly, he said: ‘Dáithí?’ and I was like ‘yeah, how are you doing?’ I was like 'the car broke down.' He was like 'where do you want to go?' I said, ‘the car is after breaking down and I would love to go to the train station in Ballinasloe’ but your man said 'no problem, I will bring you there.'
“Dropped me there, so I gave the keys of the car to the station master to give to my wife to pick up the car and I sat on the train. You know once I was sat on the train there was nothing else I can do now only enjoy it. And you know what, that’s what I did.”
But he said his car has since died and is beyond repair.
“That car died, because the gearbox got lodged into the engine which is very strange, I am being told, because it is an automatic car. Usually, if the gear stick, the gears go it just goes into neutral because it is stuck in third gear because it got rammed into the engine.
“But there was no one hurt, which is the main thing. Because I could have been creamed by two trucks, one behind me and one coming the other way,” he said.
The Rose of Tralee airs on Monday and Tuesday night on RTÉ One from 20:00-21:00 and 21:35-23:35.
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