Miss Ireland gets majestic send-off to Beijing

FOR once Chris de Burgh had to stay in the shadows but he wasn’t complaining last night as he watched his beautiful daughter, Miss Ireland Rosanna Davidson, get a majestic send-off to the Miss World contest in China.

The glittering goodbye took place at the Nemo Bar and Café in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. The bar, which first entered Rosanna in the Miss Dun Laoghaire contest, hosted a ‘Bon Voyage’ Party before Ireland’s entrant jets off to Beijing tomorrow.

As it was her last public appearance on home ground before the contest, Rosanna modelled some of the evening dresses she will be wearing throughout her trip to China. Her three-week stay will take in the cities of Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Like most of the other contestants, Rosanna will not be travelling light. “I will be bringing 17 evening gowns, 11 cocktail dresses, five swimsuits and 15 pairs of shoes.” That is only a taste of her full wardrobe which is why four hefty suitcases will accompany her on her travels in the orient.

The activity surrounding the Miss World Contest runs from mid-November to December 6, with contestants from over 100 countries attending a number of functions at different exotic locations including the Great Wall of China, The Summer Palace and The Forbidden City.

An anticipated 2.5 billion TV viewers are expected to tune in to this year’s contest on December 6.

Among the great and the good seeing Rosanna off was former Miss Ireland Andrea Roche.

“Rosanna is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime and over the next month she will meet people and experience places that she would probably otherwise never have. The Miss World Contest was an experience I will never forget,” she said.

Also there was the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Royston Brady. Staunchly upbeat about Rosanna’s chances in the competition, he declared: “I feel that this will be Ireland’s year.”

That’s what Rosanna is hoping as well. “I am really looking forward to it,” she said.