While many teenagers hanker after life in the Big Apple, Laois Rose, Sinéad Dowd, found herself going in the opposite direction, leaving behind New York for a slice of Irish country life in Cullohill.
“The whole family would come over every single summer,” recalled Sinéad, daughter of Grainne Jacob who grew up close to Durrow, and Dennis Dowd who was born in Philadelphia to Irish parents who moved back to Frenchpark, Roscommon, when he was a child.
When Sinéad was 15, she came over on her own, and immersed herself in rural life, hanging out on her aunt and uncle’s dairy farm and deepening the connection she had with her cousins in Durrow and Cullohill.
Realising how much she relished the lifestyle, she begged her parents to let her stay but they urged her to return home and avail of the opportunities in New York.
By the following summer, her parents had relented. “They had both moved over to the US at about my age so when it came down to it, they were very supportive.
“I moved in with my mam’s sister, Claire Delahunty, her husband Martin, and family. Their daughter, Lorraine, was moving to Australia so I squeezed into her bed,” laughed Sinéad.
She went into fifth year in Johnstown College and settled into life in the area after an initial bout of homesickness.
Now living on a dairy farm in Cullohill with her boyfriend, David Doheny, she is right across the road from her aunt and uncle.
She recently joined Shanahoe ladies footballers and is enjoying the experience. “I never played before and I find it quite challenging but I love it.”
A teacher of English and geography at Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise, she is doing maternity cover. “After that, the plan is to do some subbing work. I would love to go travelling but I don’t know when or where. I’m keeping my options open,” she said.
Encouraged to put her name forward for the Rose of Tralee by her colleagues, Emma Scully and former Laois Rose, Ailbhe Culleton, and sponsored by Tom Moss, another colleague who is proprietor of Turley’s Bar, Mountmellick, Sinéad said she has enormously enjoyed the run-up to the festival.
She is keeping her dress for her stage appearance which she sourced in Be Fabulous in Limerick, under wraps.
With her family flying over from New York where her dad works in construction, her mam as a carer, her sister, Roisin, as a nurse tech and her brother Dennis has just graduated with a psychology degree, Sinéad is looking forward to the family reunion at the festival.
Her Irish friends will fly in from Canada and Dubai to provide further support.
“The experience has been unreal. It has been hectic and there have been once in a lifetime opportunities including going up in a helicopter.
“We have experienced so many really fun things and all the roses get on so well. It is just fabulous.”
Photo: Domnick Walsh
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