HOSTING A LIVE TV event is not an easy job and if anyone knows that, it’s Dáithí Ó Sé. He’s in his ninth year of hosting the Rose of Tralee and has had his fair share of things going slightly awry.

For example, when he ended up in a tutu with Kentucky Rose Emily Hughes in 2015.

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Or when Cork Rose Aoife Murphy got him involved in a science experiment in the same year.

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Being the professional he is Dáithí took these moments all in his stride but sometimes even Dáithí can’t predict what’s going to happen when something doesn’t go entirely to plan. Speaking to DailyEdge.ie at RTÉ’s launch for their coverage of the Rose of Tralee 2018, Dáithí recounted an incident with a cow that didn’t go quite to plan a few years ago.

There was other stuff that never happened that should have happened. Avaleigh Eastman who was an Ottawa Rose a few years ago and she came from a farming background and the whole thing was that we were going to milk a live cow on the Rose of Tralee.”

Standard Rose of Tralee stuff of course. Nothing gives you that authentic farming feel like milking a live cow on stage with one million people watching.

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All was going to plan according to Dáithí.

I knew about it, the director, the producer and the guy with the cow knew we were going to do it but she didn’t know anything at all about it. “

The element of surprise was clearly key here. You can’t milk a cow in tip-top condition unless you’re surprised by it obviously.

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So we were chatting, chatting and chatting. Two minutes to the cow, a minute and a half to the cow and I’m thinking ‘oh my god this is going to be brilliant’ and then 30 seconds to go, I got into my ear ‘Keep talking! The cow’s gone! The cow’s bolted!”.

I would like us all to take a moment to appreciate the thought of a cow running loose through the Rose of Tralee Festival. Ottawa Rose Avaleigh could have shown us her real skills as a farmer by lassoing it to be fair to her.

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So what happened to the cow?

Well, it turns out the poor cow got stage fright and wasn’t exactly keen to be milked in front of one million people which is fair enough.

We went into an ad-break so I asked what happened? So the cow bolted outside and that was it!”

No cow, no milking, no amazing segment that we might have talked about for years to come. Ah 2012, you were truly a simpler time.

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