'Next thing, he took off with my crown'

It hardly seems like four years since Maria Walsh was crowned the Rose of Tralee. Five days after sealing her fate as the nation's sweetheart she came out as gay and made national headlines across the country. In doing so, she became an inspiration to thousands, and she continues to inspire today as an ambassador for Plan International Ireland. As pride celebrations kick of in Ireland, Maria joins Paul Ryder on this week's episode of Girls With Goals.  Maria opens up about why she didn't want her 'coming out' to be her only story, we're also discussing what pride truly means within the LGBTQ community, and how a pretty influential person got his hands on her crown. Listen to the full episode below for all the details: When you have the BIG year in your life, sometimes the comedown can be tough, as Maria explained:

'I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and you quickly realise whether your life has stalled or moved on since the big year. A lot of people ask 'who were you before 2014?'. I actually had a life, I was living in New York and I moved to Philly, then the Rose happened and it seemed to wipe out everything that I had done previously.'

  Maria went on to say that after a year of non-stop work and appearances it can be challenging to know what the next step should be, but she was certain her future was here in Ireland:

'It's a very charitable year, when it's over you're trying to find something that could even match it, that's often hard. I decided to move back to Ireland after my Rose year in September 2015 and see if I can be lucrative at all with any of the opportunities that I got.'

With the Rose of Tralee crown firmly planted on her head for an entire year, Maria revealed that some people couldn't resist the urge to try it on, as she found out the hard way after a run-in with a certain MMA fighter:

'Conor McGregor had my crown on... one year at a New Year's Eve gig. It was so bizarre, I knew who he was but there were so many people there and then he was like 'I'm gonna try this on' so he took it off my head and put it on and next thing he took off, then I laughed thinking he couldn't get too far, and he came back around an hour later. I was delighted, I thought it was an epic story!'

Epic indeed! via GIPHY   Also on this week's episode, we're talking about Sex And The City turning TWENTY YEARS OLD (37.28). We have a good natter about the benefits and pitfalls of voice notes (0.40) and our 'Tweet of the week' is (of course) a Love Island one... once again (45.48).