Show is over for the real Miss Ireland

After 25 years of fun and games, the alternative pageant finishes on Sunday. Caomhán Keane reflects on a truly fabulous event

CHRISTMAS is cancelled. At least for those within the gay community, with the news that this weekend’s Alternative Miss Ireland (AMI) pageant will be the last. After 25 years, the event has finally come of age and is hanging up her famed Medusa Crown of Shamrocks.

The question on everyone’s lips is, why end it now? “Eighteen years is a long time to be doing anything,” says former host Rory O’Neill AKA Miss Panti. “The group of people who put it together have moved away and have had children. They have careers and responsibilities of their own.”