Two newly crowned international Roses are embracing their Orchard County roots!
On June 1, over 3,000 miles away in Ottawa, Canada, a new Rose of Tralee was announced… and she’s intensely proud to have connections with County Armagh.
Aidan Russell – originally from Oshawa, Ontario, and now based in Ottawa, – is a policy and trade professional with Indigenous Services Canada.
She holds Irish citizenship through her father, David, who was born in Lurgan and whom she cites as her greatest inspiration for his selflessness and devotion to others.
Sadly, in December 2024, David passed away and as a man she regarded as her “best friend” his loss was huge.
When she was a child, Aidan regularly visited Ireland with her family. As one of nine children, David had a large family back home and Aidan explains that her incredibly close relationship with her dad “hinged on so many little things linked to Irish culture”.
So, when the Ottawa Rose Centre reached out to her just two months on from her father’s death asking her to submit an application, she said, “it just felt like the right time”.
Speaking to Armagh I, Aidan explained: “He was a huge part of my life and this gave me a unique opportunity to honour him in a different way.”
Describing the entire process as almost “serendipitous”, Aidan explained that even the selection day itself was comically the quintessential ‘Irish’ day.
“It started off at about 25 degrees Celsius, it was sunny and then from nowhere we had hail storms and it poured with rain. It was like a four-seasons-in-one-day typical Irish day,” she laughed.
While she was always “hopeful” that she would lift the title, Aidan said there were so many “wonderful, accomplished and successful girls” in the competition that she would have been just as “happy and proud” for any single one of them to have been crowned the Rose.
But, for the next two years Aidan has taken up the honour and she’s very much looking forward to using the title to help bring awareness to the Rose Centre, the Irish community in Canada, and to build on charitable fundraisers and events even “beyond” the Irish community in her home city.
In her role as policy and trade professional, she leads program evaluations, stakeholder engagement, and data-driven policy development.
She holds a Masters degree from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, specialising in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, as well as an Honours Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from Queen’s University, where she majored in Politics and minored in Global Development.
Aidan was accepted into the Canadian Foreign Service and gained valuable mission experience at the Embassy of Canada to Ireland in Dublin as Locally Engaged Staff (LES) – an opportunity she loved and hopes to revisit in the very near future.
On selection day, left Aidan Russell and right, Coleen Kelehan Pierson
Similarly, in Arizona – where, unlike in Ottawa, they are currently seeing temperatures of 41 degrees Celsius – the new Rose has been announced in Coleen Kelehan-Pierson.
The 29-year-old physical therapy technician is a proud fifth-generation Irish American from Phoenix and a lifelong Irish dancer.
While she admits she and her family are still working to try and establish her ancestry, they know her links to the Armagh and Monaghan areas come from her maternal grandmother’s side.
The direct descent to Coleen was John J Kelehan and one ancestor, Rev Francis Kelehan became the founder of the Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Donegal.
When asked how she became involved with the Rose Centre, Coleen explained: “Back in 2009 one of my dance teachers was the Arizona Rose and that was the first time I had heard of it.
“We had seen the programme and hearing her stories it just seemed incredible. We have a similar programme through our cultural centre for little ones ages aged six to 12, then a teen programme and older programme separate to the Rose and I was one of the teen representatives, and that actually spearheaded everything, being more involved in the community, public speaking and volunteer work.”
Coleen’s sister was also the first South Carolina Rose back in 2015. So no stranger to the programme she knew exactly what to expect.
Of the experience so far, Coleen says: “It’s been so much fun but a different challenge. It’s busy but I am just loving everything! I’m so excited.”
And, like Aidan, Coleen will also be returning to Ireland in the near future.
“I was in Dublin in April for the Irish Dance World Championships and before that the last time was when my sister was in Dublin for the Festival,” she said. “This year is the year of Ireland – two trips in one year!”
Of course, she’s delighted by the prospect, adding: “I love it. I would move there in a heartbeat!
“I know it’s so typical but truly the people are incredible. You don’t meet a single stranger. You feel like you have known them forever, everyone is so nice and you have never laughed so much in your whole life!”
The avid Irish dancer began dancing since she was four years old and she loves that it’s given her the ability to travel and see the world – something which many local dancers will no doubt identify with.
She said: “So many relationships have come through dance and the cultural centre. I wouldn’t be who I am without it.”
