Mags GarganLast year’s Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh, has said that taking a lifetime Pioneer pledge was the “greatest decision of my life”.
The former Philadelphia Rose was speaking at a No Name Club conference, a youth club that offers young people positive alternatives to alcohol. Maria Walsh was the No Name Club’s ‘Hostess of the Year’ in 2004 and she said the training she received with the club “served me when it came to the Rose of Tralee”.
When one of the 500 teenagers present asked if she ever regretted her decision to abstain from alcohol, she said “never”. “When people ask me what am I most proud of, and I am fortunate at the age of 28, my decision to become a Pioneer was and is the greatest decision of my life,” she said. “I got more advancement from being a Pioneer. I got more self-confidence because I have built myself up to be very self-assured and confident.”