BBC's Gabby Logan opens up about 'crazy' Rose of Tralee days
The BBC presenter represented Leeds at the Rose of Tralee in 1991.
Sports presenter Gabby Logan has opened about her “crazy time” as a contestant on the Rose of Tralee. The BBC presenter represented Leeds in the Kerry competition in 1991.
Gabby told Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday with Miriam that she has "brilliant memories" from the beauty competition.
She said: "I have enormously fond and brilliant memories of those crazy 10 days where I was the Leeds Rose in Ireland for the grand final of the Rose of Tralee," she continued.
Logan said she "completely entered in the Leeds Rose for a favour for my friend's dad who always sponsored a girl every year".
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"Never thinking I'd win it and then suddenly finding myself thrust into that brilliant, mad 10 days as I say," she recalled.
"Every time I meet anybody around the world who's of either Irish descent or lived in Ireland and I mention the Rose of Tralee, there's 10% to 20% more warmth towards me."
Gabby was just 18-years-old when she took part in the Rose of Tralee, wearing a red dress and curly blonde hair.
She told then host Gay Byrne at the time on stage: “I am taking a year out before going to university, I am going to travel and work and do the things I didn't have time to do because gymnastics took up so much time. I am going to do a degree in politics at Durham and then I want to go into TV, I want your job!
"I would like to be a TV presenter. I know it is hard work. I worked on the Today newspaper last year to get sports journalism grounding and I found it a bit different to what I expected. There were 12 men on the football desk and they all treated me like a lad. They would swear at me and take me down to the pub."
During her brief time on the stage, Gabby Yorath, before her marriage to rugby player Kenny Logan, also recited the poem Albert and The Lion by Marriott Edgar for her party piece. However, she failed to impress the judges more than Cork Rose Denise Murphy, who won the contest in 1991.
She previously told the Second Captains that it was “the most unbelievable experience”. This year's Rose of Tralee International Festival takes place from Friday, 16 August to Tuesday, 20 August.
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