Irish Beauty In Chch

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 2

Irish Beauty In Chch

A blue-eyed, blackhaired Irish beauty, Miss Eileen Slattery, this year’s international “Rose of Tralee” arrived at Christchurch Airport yesterday afternoon.

An honour guard of small girls from the Combined Irish Societies, in national dress, lined up to greet the tall, 19-year-old. Miss Slattery bent down to shake hands and exchange a few words with each one, and her ready smile and soft brogue soon overcame their shyness. Miss Slattery wore a suit of blue and tan Irish tweed, a long, high-buttoned jacket and mini-skirt, and long black boots. Her hair was held back with a head-band and spilled over her shoulders.

seem like me, and I hate lacquered hair,” she said. Miss Slattery comes from County Clare and works as a hostess-entertainer at Bunratty Castle, a sixteenth century castle Which was restored by the Irish Government as a medieval banquet hall to cater for tourists. One of the 15 Bunratty Singers, Miss Slattery dons medieval dress, puts up her long hair, and sings traditional airs for the visitors. Although they are not classed as waitresses, the girls wait on tables as this gives them an opportunity of conversing with the guests and promoting tourist attractions.

“We have an accompaniment of harp and violin. The songs are quite difficult, and it is easy to get off key,” she said.

This year she has been taking singing lessons, which she plans to continue. Next year she will join performers at another of the castles which have been restored. There she will take part in the presen-

tation of Irish history in dramatised form. The youngest of seven children her whirlwind world tour has further whetted her appetite for travel. Her first ambition was to be a journalist, and she also took a secretarial course. But when she saw the job at Bunratty Castle, with its oportunities for travel on singing tours, she immediately applied. If she had not become “Rose of Tralee” she would now be performing at a convention in Puerto Rico.

An outdoor girl and a farmer’s daughter, Miss Slattery enjoys riding, badminton, and swimming, and helps on the family farm when time allows. She is also a keen cook and dressmaker. Marriage is not on her mind at the moment When her tour is over she will spend Christmas with her family and then go to Canada and New York to work for the Irish Tours Board for a few months.

“I’m going to live Ireland for a few years. It has given me this wonderful trip so I owe something in return. Then if I decide to emigrate I won’t feel guilty,” she said.