Emergency Accommodation Rose Steals The Show

MOTHER of two Janet Hannigan wowed viewers of the ever popular Rose of Tralee festival tonight after taking to the stage dressed in a cotton bathrobe before detailing her hilarious lifestyle in a selection of Dublin’s hotels, hostels and B&Bs.

Mrs Hannigan, who works as a receptionist, could barely keep her eyes open as she took to the stage to meet host Dáiti Ó’Sé, who complimented her on her unusual attire.

“Penneys!” she pointed out to howls of laughter from the audience, now clutching a hot water bottle as her husband John waved on from the crowd, “myself and the husband work, but we just couldn’t afford a dress as we had to bring a couple of the kids to the doctor this month, you know yourself”.

The 32-year-old’s down-to-earth mannerisms shone through as she playfully bantered with the Rose of Tralee presenter: “the hotels down here are like Adu Dhabi compared to where we are in Dublin, I think we’ll stay down in Kerry altogether, there’s even fridges in the rooms an’ all”.

Organisers were commended for providing audiences with a contestant and story they could connect to and go on to forget all about until next year’s festival brings something similar.

For her party trick a table containing a kettle, several baby bottles and a small stack of money was wheeled out, where Mrs Hannigan proceeded to multitask, filling up milk bottles while also managing to divide up a strict daily budget for the coming week out of just 100 euro and cooking up a nutritional meal for her family using only a microwave which occasionally sparked.

“This is all I’m usually left for shopping out from our income as we’re trying to save for renting in Dublin,” Janet spoke as she filled the last of the baby bottles with milk formula and water, “it looks hard to do, but the really hard bit is living on what we’ve got for the rest of the week”.

“Help,” Janet asked to awkward laughs, “the estate agents want nothing to do with us once they hear the accent or that we’re living in a hotel. And don’t get me started on the local council”.

Met with a round of applause from the audience, the daughter of two began nodding off from complete exhaustion, before being carried off the stage.