In the early hours of Easter Monday morning last in the ballroom of the Midlands Park Hotel, a new Laois Rose was crowned.
Because of a Covid and a change to the structure, which now means counties only host a Rose event every second year, it was four years since the last Laois Rose, Sarah Bergin from Clonad, was triumphant.
From 17 entrants, Sinead Dowd was chosen as the girl who will represent Laois in the Dome in Tralee this August.
Sinead’s story is an incredible one, one that saw her move to Cullohill, from New York, on her own when she was just 16.
Ten years later, she’s teaching English and Geography in Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise – and in August she’ll be on stage and on live TV, shooting the breeze with Daithí Ó Sé, representing Laois in the Rose of Tralee.
Encouraged by her teaching colleagues Emma Scully and former Laois Rose Ailbhe Culleton, and sponsored by Tom Moss, another colleague who is also the proprietor of Turley’s Bar in Mountmellick, she allowed her name go forward.
“Years ago growing up in New York, I used to watch it on television with my mam and sister and family,” she says on this week’s #LoveLaois podcast which will be available to download on Tuesday.
“Everyone used to make a mess that I’d be going for the New York Rose – but obviously I moved over here.”
Her mother is Grainne Jacob from near Durrow, who moved to New York when she was a teenager.
There she met Dennis Dowd, who was born in Philadelphia to Irish parents but moved back to Frenchpark in Roscommon when he was a child.
They married and had three children – Roisin, Sinead and Dennis. Initially they lived in the predominantly Irish community of Yonkers, beloved of so many ex-pats, before moving to Westchester.
“I don’t think my mam and dad had many non-Irish friends over there. It was all Irish,” laughs Sinead.
“We were always immersed in the Irish community. I did Irish dancing; my friend did ladies football and camogie. Trying to keep that connection to the Irish heritage. It was in our face the whole time.
“I did love New York, there was nothing wrong with New York,” she adds.
But when she came home to visit during the summers, staying with the various Jacob cousins around Durrow and Cullohill, she was in her element.
“I came over one summer on my own. I think it was the first summer without family and I was just ‘I’m in love with this place’. – I said ‘I cannot go home’. I cried and cried and put up a little hissy-fit.
“My mam and dad were like ‘no, you’re not moving here, you have your life here’.”
On that occasion they coaxed her home – but it wasn’t long before she was back in Ireland for good.
“I think everyone could see I wasn’t happy (in New York). Everyone had that inkling, not that I didn’t belong, but that I felt like I belonged somewhere else more. I just loved Ireland. I always wanted to be connected to my cousins.
“Going out on the farm; milking cows, jumping over electric fences, cousins daring me. It was just so fun and pure here.
“My dad was a bit more not wanting me to come here because he grew up in rural Roscommon and he just felt I’d have more opportunities in New York.
“It might seem like that from the outside but for me I didn’t agree with him. I was very adamant. My mam supported me and finally got my dad on side. They both moved over (to the USA) at about my age … when it all came down to it they were very supportive.”
Martin and Claire Delahunty (a sister of her mam’s) took her in and provided that family support here.
“They were so good. It was weird enough. Lorraine (her cousin) ended up moving to Australia (so there was an) empty bunk bed waiting for me. Richenda was bottom bunk, I was top bunk.”
She went into fifth year in Johnstown College, just across the border in Kilkenny.
“It took about three months to settle in,” she says. “I was never tempted to go home but I did get home sick the first three months – and I was like ‘sugar, did I make the right decision’.
“I had friends back home as well. They were like ‘what are you doing’.
“There was something in me telling me that I needed to move.
“I actually can’t imagine my life if I didn’t make that decision. I am so happy living here. I have great friends, I met my boyfriend in Johnstown, it’s great.”
The full interview with Sinead will be available on the #LoveLaois podcast this Tuesday, April 18.
