The "lovely girls" competition starts later in the month but yesterday marked the launch of the "lovely boys" who will look after them, writes Marie O'Halloran.

In the manly setting of Croke Park, 28 of the Rose of Tralee escorts, aged from 22 to 30, togged out for the cameras as they prepared for the big event from August 19th to 23rd.

Some 250 guys expressed an interest in being escorts at the 48th Newbridge Silverware Rose of Tralee festival; 95 applied and 55 were interviewed.

The southern counties are well-represented in the final line-out, as is the capital. Kilkenny and Waterford have no representatives.

"They didn't make the cut," quips Colm Croffy, the Rose of Tralee escort co-ordinator.

Croffy sums up the escort requirements. He told the judges selecting them that "at the end of the day you should feel confident enough in your choice to let them take your youngest sister out and bring her back in good order". Good social skills, an even temperament and adaptability are essentails, he adds.

"Ninety-nine per cent of Roses don't consider themselves high-maintenance, but the event turns them into high-maintenance," he says.

Escorts have to be able to deal with parents and siblings, as well as the Roses' boyfriends.

The outgoing escort of the year, Ciarán O'Donnell (24), from Corofin, Co Clare, says being an escort was "a dream come true". He used to attend the festival every year and was so keen that he first applied at the too-young age of 17 to be an escort. Last year, he was successful and the Roses voted him escort of the year. He attributes a large part of his success to his Rose, South Australian Niamh O'Reilly, because "she was so down to earth".

One of this year's escorts is Colm Ó Laoire (26), a gaelgeoir from Glasnevin in Dublin, who works at Cappagh hospital with people who require prosthetic limbs. He was volunteered by female colleagues at work and it will be his first time at the event.

A Rose mammy, Ruth Feeney, from Brisbane, Australia, whose daughter Kathryn was crowned last year's winning Rose, believes the key to a good escort is "the friendship they can give the girls, 'cos it's very hectic". Attending the escorts' launch with her daughter, Feeney says "it's all beautifully controlled and there are rules and regulations". Such as? "The girls going to bed at a certain time and the boys all have to leave."

Kathryn, who posed for photos with the boys in her tiara, says escorts "need to be able to act in a supportive role". A hard job for an Irish "lovely boy".