The STEM of the Rose in Monaghan

Emyvale woman Leah Murphy wasn’t going to jinx the result by pre-emptively taking Monday off. When the Celt caught up with her, she had to find a quiet nook during lunch break. She was still “absolutely over the moon” after been crowned Monaghan Rose on Saturday night.

An honour, she wasn’t expecting: “They had an awful job unpinning the old sash on stage after the announcement,” Leah recalls.

Alongside 13 other entrants, the 25-year old spent the day in The Four Seasons Hotel taking part in individual and group interviews with three judges who were former Roses and Rose Escorts at the Rose of Tralee festival. For the third piece, each Rose was interviewed on stage with host Sean McCaffrey of Northern Sound. They performed a party piece, which ranged from Irish language demos, singing, playing instruments and Sean being taken through the labour hopscotch – much to the entertainment of the audience.

After attending Coláiste Oiriall in her primary school years, Leah strived to keep up with the Irish language. Her sponsor is Muineachán le Gaeilge. Now a gaeilgeoir through and through, she took to the stage to teach some fun Irish phrases. If her passion for the language was a reason the judges chose her, she cannot say. Spoken like a true Rose, she said: “It was a tough competition. They were all so well spoken on stage. It could’ve been any one of us.”

Leah feels that the Irish language has given her many opportunities. As a fluent speaker, she has worked for TG4, RTÉ radio and BBC. Being a woman in STEM, she encourages more young women and girls to branch out into this field. Leah graduated Computing and Information Technology in 2022. Currently, she works for a financial technology company in Belfast - a company she specifically chose because of its diverse staff.

Equality, she did not quite see reflected during her time in university. In that respect, Leah views the current Rose and apprentice electrician Katelyn Cummins as a role model and she hopes, she can “do my bit to portray women in STEM” just as well.

Monaghan’s Rose Coordinator Sonia Flanagan was delighted with the event: “Each of the girls excelled across the day and we’re very proud of them all.”

Sonia is convinced that Leah will represent County Monaghan well: “We are absolutely thrilled for Leah, she will be a wonderful ambassador for Monaghan, her family and the Monaghan Rose class of 2026. We are sure that Leah will embrace every second of the Monaghan Rose and will bring the same passion to it as she does with everything else she is involved with.”

There wasn’t much time for Leah to prepare for her new role.

A mere 12 hours after the announcement, she was out on the pitch in Clones at half time of the Monaghan - Cavan match and in the evening she had the honour of being one of the first to congratulate the new Cavan Rose at the Selection.

She is looking forward to the exciting road ahead of her.

She has heard so much about the experience - her late Aunt Sinéad Murphy being the Ulster Rose in 1991.

Although she never got to meet her, “the good buzz” motivated Leah to “give it a go”.

If people would like Leah to attend an event or support a charity function, they can get in touch with the Rose Centre at monaghanrosecentre@roseoftralee.ie