The 2015 Rose of Tralee Elysha Brennan says she used to be cynical about the competition herself.

She took the title in the Festival Dome last night, after becoming the first Meath Rose to reach the televised stage of the contest.

The second year medical student has also spoken openly about her battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and was given the all-clear in 2013.

The newly-crowned Rose says winning the competition has been a pipe dream of hers since she was a child.

Elysha told Newstalk Breakfast she hopes her positive message about recovery will help others, as she looks forward to the next stage of her life.

Twitter says the competition took over its platform last night.

It says there were 52,000 tweets using the Rose of Tralee hashtag, with a peak of 140 a minute.

This tweet was singled out, having been retweeted over 150 times.

And the 2015 Rose of Tralee is Meath Rose Elysha Brennan #roseoftralee pic.twitter.com/cheqwiheGE

— Rose of Tralee (@RoseofTralee_) August 18, 2015