Coming up roses
They say that good things come to those who wait but they – whoever they are – never provide the fine-print details of what ‘wait’ actually means. In the real world, good things come to those who pursue, persist and persevere, with a healthy serving of determination on the side. This is what comes to mind having met Katelyn.
Coming from a dairy farm on the Laois-Kilkenny border, the Ploughing is no stranger to Katelyn, nor her to it: “I have been coming here every year since I was five or six,” she says, agreeing that this year, however, was a very different experience. “It is mental; so, so different. Every other year, you are parked in a field and walking 25 minutes to get to a gate, dragging through the dirt. This year we were given a pass for the car, collected by a buggy, brought straight to HQ, and given a really warm welcome.”
Breaking the stigma
Katelyn’s persona has been amplified by her recent Rose of Tralee victory and she is embracing and using that spotlight for the most worthy of reasons: “I enjoy having the opportunity to advocate for things that are important to me, and talking about those things, and I feel like the Rose of Tralee is a very good baseline for that.”
Elaborating on this, she says: “I want to advocate for young girls and young lads in Ireland who aren’t so sure about their future and maybe don’t know what they want to do. I think it is important to explore all options and to try not to go the traditional route, such as maybe doing your work experience in the local primary school because it is the easier thing to do. I think it is very important to try different experiences because they teach you so much.
“When I did my work experience with a local electrician, it taught me so much about what I really want to do, which is to be an electrician. So, you need to cover all your bases and really try to understand what there is out there. You don’t have to go to college. You can if you want to, obviously, but there are so many other paths to so many careers, and I think that is so important to advocate for women in Ireland who may be afraid to go into male dominated trades. I think women might worry that there would be some element of judgement and that it might be difficult to get into the area.”
Katelyn is very well placed and experienced to make this point. At just 20, she is in the third phase of her four-year electrical apprenticeship. But securing it was not easy: “I do know that it is very difficult to get into a male-dominated trade – it took me four months to get a job to do the apprenticeship, and there is such a stigma there that women can’t do it or shouldn’t be allowed to do it because we are not the same as lads, or we are not strong enough. I think that is so unfair and I really want to break that stigma.”
Katelyn Cummins, the 2025 Rose of Tralee. Photo: Rose of Tralee.
On winning the Rose of Tralee, Katelyn's employer, Alpha Drives & Switchgear said: “Katelyn contributes genuine skill and a strong, can-do attitude to her work. Katelyn sets an example whether she’s using the equipment, picking up new skills, or embodying the principles we value most: professionalism, teamwork, and camaraderie. She serves as a reminder that desire, talent, and genuineness are valued and rewarded in addition to serving as an inspiration for young women considering technical occupations.”
‘Dirty jobs’
She shares the challenges she faced when trying to pursue her dream apprenticeship. These challenges, she states without hesitation, came about because of her gender. After her Leaving Certificate, Katelyn and her Dad commenced the search for a job with a company that would accept her onto the apprentice electrician scheme. She heard it all: it was tough work; there were dirty jobs, unsuitable for a girl; there were ‘tight spaces’ that she ‘wouldn’t be able for’; her lack of work experience – remember, she had just completed her exams – was cited as a reason, despite her transition year placement with an electrician.
“I grew up on a farm, I am well able and have no problem getting my hands dirty,” she says. “It was very, very disheartening and very difficult to keep going on but I am very persistent, and I knew that this was the career I wanted, so that empowered me,” she said.
Eventually, Katelyn was accepted at Alpha Drives & Switchgear in Co. Laois. She is the only female apprentice, but she hasn’t looked back since.
Future ambitions
When she qualifies, Katelyn says she hopes to travel around America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia – and work as an electrician – for a few years before returning home to do an engineering degree. She thinks about her future a lot: “I am always thinking about what lies ahead. I might want to start a family at some stage so I might be able to work from home, or maybe I will set up my own business and just hire women. Women need to be highlighted in this industry and if that is something I could do, I would absolutely love that.
“From a very young age, I have always thought about setting up my own business, just never knew what way I would do that, but it has always been a passion.”
Growing up on a farm
“If you said the words, ‘I am bored’, you would have 10 jobs lined up for you,” says Katelyn of growing up on a farm. “We were always outside and not afraid to work, and not afraid of dirty work.”