Padraig Staunton, escort at the Rose of Tralee International Festival
A trip to a DIY store might have been a strange place to start, but an impulse buy at Woodie's helped clinch Padraig Staunton's victory as escort of the year at the 2005 Rose of Tralee International Festival. He bought a box of plant fertiliser with the words "Rose Food" on it, emptied the contents into the bin, cleaned it out and refilled it with handmade chocolates.
By next Friday he will have done a pile of ironing for his six-day stint as one of 30 young men expected to don smart casual in the mornings, suits in the afternoons and freshly laundered tuxedos every night. Being an escort does not come cheap. Each of them has to raise €2,000 in sponsorship to cover their bed, board and the old-fashioned chivalry of never letting a Rose put her hand in her pocket. As last year's escort of the year, Staunton gets to go back this year for free.
"I was astonished at the crowds at the parades. You have gangs of kids who want to collect the Roses' autographs. They have these books with a page per girl, and you'll be pulling children out of the way as the parade goes by."
His colleagues at Ground Marketing, a Dublin firm he runs with his sister and a friend, persuaded him to enter last year. There have been many jokes about Father Ted's lovely girls competition.
"My pockets will be full of all sorts. Last year I emptied a first-aid box and made up my own survival kit, with those party feet gel pads, a mini sewing kit, Alka-Seltzer, see-through plasters, mini hairbrush, hem-repair stuff, the lot. I think lots of fellas like the idea of it, because it appeals to something in all of us, a bit of Irish chivalry. You really do treat them like they're your sister. Last year the Luxembourg Rose wanted her escort to join her in a crawling race on stage as her party piece. He talked her down off the ledge, and she did a belly dance instead. I remember Ray D'Arcy had to look away." Catherine Cleary
The Rose of Tralee festival runs from next Friday until Tuesday, August 22nd. Photograph: Frank Miller