The Cavan Rose got some land when her segment during the first night of the Rose of Tralee pageant was interrupted by a fairly irate-looking priest intent on stealing her spotlight last night.

Clutching a handwritten sign, Matt O'Connor – not a priest but the founder of Fathers4Justice – tried to raise awareness of his organisation, before being escorted off-stage in front of a stunned audience.

Defending his decision to interrupt both the televised event and Lisa Reilly's interview with Dáithí O' Shea, Matt told Radio Kerry: "Lets put it in context – it's a beauty pageant, not somebody's holy communion."

"I was told – and I hope it's the case – that she carried on, the show carried on…and fair play to her," Matt said. "It's disconcerting, but let's remember this was a peaceful protest, it was nothing more dramatic than that, a couple of seconds on television, let's put it in that context."

Revealing that last night's protest only signalled the beginning, Matt continued: "The contest itself – the Rose of Tralee – has widely been panned as being a sexist and outdated beauty pageant; but it's an issue that we thought needed to be aired and it's the first of many protests we're going to be staging across Ireland."

Standing by his approach, Matt added: "That right to protest is actually enshrined in law. We have a right to peaceful protest, this was a peaceful protest."

And while it may be considered peaceful, Matt's decision left the Cavan Rose feeling more than a little rattled.

Commenting on the moment which – along with the Sydney Rose's impassioned speech – has been doing the rounds on Twitter today, Lisa said: "I was very, very close to bursting out crying."

#CavanRose for the win! She didn't bat an eyelid after that incident. Current Rose needs a 2.2L water bottle, @bodyfirst_ie #RoseofTralee

— Doireann Wylde (@DWyldeChild) August 22, 2016

"Dáithí gave me a bit of a squeeze," she continued. "Then everyone started to stand up for an ovation, especially the escorts and the Roses."

"It was the first time in eight years a Cavan Rose was in the Rose of Tralee so I wasn't going to let people down," she insisted.