At the annual talent show at Bristol Township’s Lafayette Elementary School, first grade teacher Christine Frawley proved that Irish step dancing is quite possibly the closest thing we have to a universal language. Her class—mostly African-Americans—surprised their classmates with their ability to execute a soft jig with the virtuosity of anyone named Siobhan or Aisling from County Cork or County Clare.

The 24-year-old from Yardley, herself an Irish dancer, also discovered that the jig can be an important teaching tool. During recess, when kids are usually leading with their fists, her kids kept their hands—and their arms—by their sides. Fortunately, at Lafayette, there’s no rule against jigging in the schoolyard. “I was so surprised when I saw some of my biggest bullies teaching the second graders Irish dancing at recess,” admits Frawley, laughing. “Some of the kids who were having a difficult time in the classroom academically turned out to be my best dancers. They got such a kick out of it, but it also had a real impact on them.”

And clearly on their teacher, for whom Irish tradition is a living, breathing—and usually dancing and singing—thing. A former Philadelphia Miss Mayo, Frawley was recently crowned the city’s “Rose of Tralee.” In the U.S., the Rose of Tralee pageant is an under-the-radar event that produces a handful of contestants who compete in Ireland in August with young Irish women from all over the world. (This year, one blond-haired, blue-eyed contender comes from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates). But it’s one of Ireland’s largest festivals, drawing big-name acts (James Brown once performed; Mary Black is this year’s headliner) and nearly a million TV viewers. Former Philly TV newscaster Michele McCormack is a past winner from Chicago and she hosted the local pageant during the Irish Festival on Penn’s Landing in June. The contest is sponsored by the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center of Philadelphia, in Upper Darby.

Like the Mary from Dungloe competition, Rose of Tralee has its roots in a lachrymose Irish tune about love and death and loss. But what it’s really about is Irishness.

And the brunette, blue-eyed Frawley, who is as effervescent as a pint of Harp, is also as Celtic as they come. Fourth child in a family of six kids (her dad Jim is a retired New York cop, her mother Barbara is a stay-at-home mom and volunteer), she traces her roots back to Galway, where her grandmother was born,  and to Clare, where her grandfather left the family farm in Kilmurry-McMahon (a town smaller than its name) to come to America. Both homesteads are still owned by family members, one of whom gave Frawley a history tour she can’t forget.

“We went to the Woodlawn train station in Galway and my cousin said, ‘This is the station where your grandmother left to go to America,’” she recalls. “It really gave me the chills. We asked my grandmother, ‘Was that the most exciting day of your life?’ And she said, ‘It was the worst day of my life.’ She thought she would never see her parents or family again. It made me think of the strength and the courage they had, leaving everything and everyone they knew to come to America. It really was inspiring.”

Frawley, who just got her Irish citizenship, has been to Ireland twice. At 19, she spent her summer there, working at The White House, a restaurant and guest house in Kinsale, County Cork, operated by her cousins Michael and Rose Frawley. She made beds, cleaned rooms, and helped in the pub. “It’s the best way to see a country,” she says. “You really get to know the people and the community. “ She laughs when she recalls a visit to “my Auntie Baba,” who lived in a tiny little house on a family farm in County Clare. “We all packed into her kitchen and at one point, they picked up the table and we all started dancing. We did broom dancing, Irish dancing, four-hands—everything! And everyone did something. You can be the worst singer or dancer, but everyone gets up.”

But Frawley’s parents also wisely brought a little bit of Ireland home to their family. When she was young, she says, her parents hosted children from Northern Ireland through Project Children, a program founded in 1975 by Denis Mulcahy, a Cork-born New York City police officer who was a friend of her father's. “It’s an incredible experience, when you’re young, to be with a child from another country, especially Northern Ireland. It really helped to make you understand that you’re just one person in a big world.”

It also taught her how a little love and attention can heal many wounds. As a newly minted teacher (she graduated from the University of Scranton in 2004), Frawley has gravitated towards challenging classrooms where she feels she can have the most impact. Her last job was at Whittier Elementary School in North Philadelphia. 

“I think it’s from the Gospel of St. Luke: ‘Of those to whom much is given, much is expected,’” she says, thoughtfully. “I have a wonderful family, and life has been so great for me, I want my students to have that too. All kids need love and attention. A lot of my first graders have seen more than I ever did at only 7 years old. And believe me, while I’m teaching them, they’re teaching me. But it’s so exciting to see how much a child can change from September to June. I have one little boy who knew two words in the beginning of the year and by the end he was reading 93 words. So I don’t just like my job—I love it. It’s like putting on a big Broadway play every day. We sing, we dance, we talk. When I’m exhausted, they energize me. Someone once said, ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ That couldn’t be truer for me.”

Root for Christine Frawley to be crowned the International Rose of Tralee when the Rose of Tralee Festival is celebrated in the seaside town of Tralee in County Kerry, August 18-22.