Melbourne Rose to take part in Edenderry Patrick's Day parade

Now back on home soil in Australia, Melbourne Rose Claire Lynch who has Edenderry roots is already looking forward to her next trip to Ireland. Speaking to the Offaly Independent Claire said that although she didn't win the Rose of Tralee contest her time as part of the contest was the best of her life. What's more, she said her Edenderry uncle has already signed her up to appear in Edenderry's next St Patrick's Day parade! "It was an experience which is so hard to put into words, and for a girl who is never short for words I still can't explain the experience I had," the occupational therapist said. Claire said she is already missing her fellow Roses, who she says will be friends for life. "We arrived to the Carlton Hotel in Blanchardstown on Sunday, August 12 where I met up with 23 of the Roses I had met at the regionals and then with the other nine Roses who hadn't gone through regionals," she said. "Being the only Aussie to have to go through regionals I felt I was able to connect the other Aussie Roses to the other girls. After two minutes we were all great friends. "People ask if there are any Roses that don't get on, but definitely not," Claire added. "I think it is because at that stage we are all winners. We had been selected out of thousands to represent our centres at the International Festival." Claire said it was the week she spent travelling around Ireland before the festival's culmination in Tralee that really took her breath away. "This is the part I could not believe," she said. "I have only been living in Melbourne for four and a half years, but to come back and have time to travel around Ireland made me really appreciate how beautiful it is." Claire was greeted in Tralee by her Galway escort Andrew Kelly. "That's where it all hit home what I was doing," she said. "Where do I start in listing the support I had - friends from Melbourne, friends and family from Stabannon, Co Louth, Edenderry, Birr, Tullamore, Ballinagar...it was amazing. There were people I spotted in the crowd that I couldn't believe had made the journey to support me." Claire's mother Bernadette is from Edenderry, and Claire said seeing the support for her mother as well as herself was "absolutely breath-taking". "Although I did not win I had the best two weeks of my life and memories I will have forever," Claire said. There's no doubt at least one more big memory to come however. "My uncle Paul in Edenderry has me signed up for the St Patrick's Day float in Edenderry, so if the annual leave allows me I'll be home for March to see everyone in Offaly."