WATCH: Father of newly-crowned Rose of Tralee explains THAT Declan Hannon screensaver

LIMERICK native Eddie Wiley woke up this Wednesday morning as the proudest father in Tralee and revealed how excited his family are after his daughter, Róisín, was named the International Rose of Tralee for 2023.

Eddie is originally from Kilmallock and his wife Majella is from Templeglantine and the couple had travelled home from New York for the Rose of Tralee festival in Kerry.

"I'm feeling great this morning, we are very blessed and thankful that it all worked out nice for her," he said. 

The family flew in last Thursday to support Róisín with her brother, John, flying back home this Wednesday morning.

"It was amazing, just seeing the pictures this morning, the shock on her face, it was great, very emotional but beautiful," he said. 

Majella moved to the States in 1988 and Eddie followed over in 1989 but the family are enriched in the GAA scene in New York and regularly come home for matches. 

"We're big fans of the hurling so we've had a couple of great years, long may that last, it's great for the kids to see us involved in it. We've a new club, Club Limerick New York, which was set up after they won in 2018 so that gives us a lot of access to the team and we've had guys over and back, we are all very much involved in it," he added. 

The 27-year-old rose, who lived in Patrickswell for a year when younger, revealed on stage that her father has had a Limerick hurler as his screensaver for many years before changing it.

"That was a bit of a surprise, my son put Declan Hannon on there with the Liam MacCarthy cup and I never thought of changing it but I said there a couple of weeks ago when she won the New York one, I said I better change this, I figured it out eventually so now she's up there," he explained.