Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins told David Hennessy about joining the cast for the new series of RTE’s Dancing with the Stars, her passion to encourage more females into trades and her family in London.
Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins is joining the cast for the ninth series of RTE’s Dancing with the Stars which returns this weekend.
Katelyn was crowned the 2025 International Rose of Tralee in August becoming the first Laois Rose to hold the title in the festival’s 65-year history.
From a village on the Laois-Kilkenny border, the 21-year-old is an apprentice electrician and plans to pursue an engineering degree.
Katelyn impressed audiences last summer with her jiving skills on stage during the Rose of Tralee competition.
She has also spoken about her apprenticeship and the importance of encouraging more women to consider alternative education routes to the traditional college pathway.
Katelyn chatted to the Irish World about her passion for dancing, how being crowned Rose of Tralee continues to feel surreal and her family links to London including the Gallagher and Cummins families in Cricklewood and being cousin to a recent London Rose.
Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins told The Irish World: “Dancing is really a passion of mine.
“I started Irish dancing when I was about four or five.
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“My mam does ceili dancing, set dancing.
“I went down with her to the club one evening and then I fell in love with it.
“I picked it up in the one night.
“I had the steps after two or three different dances and I fell in love with it then.
“And then there was one night that they started jiving.
“I turned around to my mam and I said, ‘I want to learn how to do that’.
“And she said, ‘Okay, when we go home, I’ll teach you how to do it’.
“And so we went home from the pub that night and I was only about 16 or 17 and she showed me a few moves and I loved it after that.
“And then we (me and a friend) started going around to see Jimmy Buckley and Michael English and The Tumbling Paddies and all that.
“We always dance together, myself and my friend so it was amazing.”
It is some months since you were crowned Rose of Tralee, does it continue to sink in?
“It’s just been mad.
“It’s been a complete 360 turnaround from my life before Tralee.
“When (2024 Rose of Tralee) Keely (O’Grady) got up on stage before she handed over the crown, Daithi asked her, ‘What piece of advice would you give to the next rose?’
“And she just said, ‘Make the role your own’.
“And I feel like I have made the role my own.
“It is just amazing.”
What are you memories of hearing your name announced as Rose of Tralee 2025? Was it all very surreal?
“That moment I went into complete shock.
“I didn’t expect it.
“I said, ‘I’ll go down here and I’ll have a bit of craic and I’ll make a few friends out of it’.
“And then when my name was announced I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no way’.
“And I remember when they put the sash on and I was waving out to the crowd, all I was thinking about was, ‘Am I going to be able to go back to work on Monday?’
“That was all I was thinking.
“Because I love my work.
“I was still kind of really stuck in my own life at that moment, it didn’t hit me. I don’t think it still has to be quite honest with you.
“I don’t think it’s hit me what I’ve done and where I am today because it’s just been a whirlwind since Tralee.
“It’s such a different life to what a normal 20, 21 year old would live.”
Was it a case of gaining 31 new Rose sisters, as they say?
“I’ve made absolute friends for life.
“That’s why I went for the Laois Rose in the first place, to make more girlfriends out of this experience.
“It’s safe to say I’ve come out with 35 or 36 new sisters.
“Even the girls I went for the Laois Rose with, I’m still friends with some of them.
“This festival is one in a million.
“It really is.
“There’s absolutely nothing like it.
“I went over to visit the London Rose Shauna (Sammon) there at the bank holiday weekend in October.
“We’ve become good friends as well.”
Will you be over to London again before your year is up?
“I would love to.
“I have cousins in London.
“They’re all over London there.
“My dad’s side of the family, the Cummins’ are around Cricklewood area.
“I’ve been in London an awful lot growing up.
“I’d say I’ve been about seven or eight times in the last few years.
“It is one of my favourite cities in the world.
“I will definitely try to get back over before I hand over my sash.
“I’ll definitely get over after (Christmas).”
Is it true that one of your London cousins is 2022 London Rose Hayley Reynolds?
“Yes, Hayley Reynolds is a cousin of mine.
“My dad and her mam are first cousins.
“I’m the third in my family to go for the rose.
“The previous Laois Rose just before me was my cousin as well, Sinead Dowd so I’m the third rose in my family.
“I met up with Hayley when I went over to meet Shauna.
“It’s just incredible to have that support everywhere I go.
“Hayley was so good to me before I went down to Tralee, so supportive and gave me advice I needed. Definitely having family in it makes it even more special.”
What have been special highlights for you so far?
“There’s been so many.
“I have to say Electric Picnic.
“I was on main stage on the Sunday with the Timahoe Male Choir from Laois.
“They brought me up and I was jiving with one of the lads in the choir.
“That was incredible.
“And then there was the Network Ireland Conference which is all about empowering women and women working together.
“The Two Johnnys Late Night Lock-in was absolutely unbelievable. I absolutely loved that.
“There was the ploughing.
“I got to meet Anna May McHugh and Taoiseach Micheal Martin and I had dinner with the ploughing committee as well.
“I never thought that would happen.
“I was paraded around all day in a buggy and it was so different to how I had ever experienced the ploughing before.
“I’ve been every year since I was a child and it was so different this year.
“It was definitely one for the memory book anyway.
“There’s been so many conferences as well to do with the construction industry, women in trades, women in empowerment.”
It is a passion of yours to inspire women to get into trades, isn’t that right?
“Yeah, it is 100%.
“When I was crowned as the Laois Rose back in April, there was a spotlight shone on my career being an apprentice electrician.
“I didn’t expect it but I’m so glad.
“Women need to be more aware that we can do this, we can still do the same things that lads do.
“It’s not talked about enough in schools.
“It certainly wasn’t when I was in secondary school and I do still think that is the case but I do think I am changing some guidance counsellors’ mindsets and some kids’ mindsets.
“It is so important to me that people realise that the leaving cert isn’t the be all and end all.
“There is such a stigma in Ireland these days.
“They think that these exams define the rest of your life, and they don’t.
“They really, really don’t and there’s so many different pathways to life, not just the traditional route of third level education.
“I grew up on a dairy farm so I’ve been milking cows and feeding calves since I could talk.
“I’m the oldest daughter as well so I would have always been the one to help my dad on the farm.
“And then when I was in transition year I said to dad, ‘I don’t want to go to a primary school (for work experience) like every normal Irish teenager does’.
“And he said, ‘Why don’t you go and work for someone who does a trade? Maybe you could do an apprenticeship’.
“And I said, ‘What the hell is an apprenticeship?’
“And he was like, ‘It’s where you get paid to learn for four years’.
“And that kind of struck me: You’re learning on the job for four years.
“You’re also getting paid to do it.
“It is a learning mechanism that works for me as well because I don’t learn that well academically.
“I went for the week with a local electrician and it was hands down probably one of the best weeks of my life.
“I was with him for five days and I learned so much but I was so intrigued seeing how a job went from start to finish and you can see the progress along the way.
“It’s just so rewarding.”
You grew up playing camogie..
“Yeah, I’ve been playing camogie since I was about four or five.
“I’ll definitely be going back after I hand over my sash next year, 100%.
“My sister was on the Kilkenny underage camogie teams there.
“She would be a brilliant player.
“I can’t wait to get back into it when I have more time.”
You are Laois Rose but you just mentioned you sister being on a Kilkenny panel. Of course you are from Ballyouskill which is on the border of Kilkenny/ Laois so are you Kilkenny as far as GAA is concerned?
“100%.
“I live on the Kilkenny side of the Laois/ Kilkenny border and we follow the hurling massively in our household.
“It is probably the bond that we have between myself, my brother, my sister, my dad and my mam.
“We’re such a strong GAA following family.
“I definitely carry a Kilkenny jersey nearly everywhere I go.
“When I came back after Tralee my camogie club manager of my junior team there gave me a split Kilkenny/Laois jersey.
“He said, ‘Just so we can both claim you’.
“It was quite funny and it was lovely.
“It was really, really special.”
Of course you are proud to represent Laois too..
“I am, yeah.
“I went to primary school in County Kilkenny and then I went to secondary school in County Laois and now I’m working in Laois but there’s connection with both and we know a lot of people in both counties as well.
“It’s nice to be able to represent both when you know so many people in both counties.”
Having you as Rose of Tralee has been a great joy for your community, hasn’t it?
“100% and that has become more evident to me since the festival.
“The night I got selected my mam and dad were just so proud: The look on their faces and the hugs that they gave.
“They jumped up out of their seats and they gave each other a big hug and my brother and my sister went running up to my parents then as well.
“It was a moment I don’t think our family will ever experience again: That immense feeling of shock seeing that happening.
“Even when I was going for Laois it was the night before the selection and I turned around to my mam and dad at home and I said, ‘I’ve had a really good time getting to know the girls and whatever happens tomorrow, I’ve made at least a few friends out of this experience and that’s what I wanted’.
“That’s the mindset I went into Laois with.
“I saw one of my neighbours from home at the parade in Tralee.
“I saw him at the side of the street with his wife and his kids.
“I started bawling my eyes out.
“I couldn’t believe that he was after coming the whole way down and it made me very, very emotional to see that I do have that support around me from my community at home.
“To represent my community of Ballyouskill, you can’t even put it into words.”
The new series of Dancing with the Stars starts on Sunday January 4th and runs until mid March. Watch it online on RTÉ Player.
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