Castlebar’s Cynthia Sakala hails ‘absolutely incredible’ support ahead of Miss Ireland

MISS Ireland hopeful Cynthia Sakala hopes she can repay the ‘absolutely incredible’ support she has received in her native Castlebar when she flies the flag for Mayo at the start of November.

Cynthia said she is ‘over the moon’ to be representing Mayo at Miss Ireland, which takes place at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport on November 4.

The 20-year-old student in St Angela’s College in Sligo had always been a fan of beauty pageants, whether it was The Rose of Tralee or Miss Ireland.

Then one day she spotted an online advertisement to apply for Miss Ireland.

She sent away her application and hasn’t looked back since.

“I obviously did it because I wanted to meet girls and women that have similar values to me and who form a strong sisterhood and just girls who have similar values to me. The amount of friends I’ve made throughout this journey has been fantastic,” Cynthia told The Mayo News.

“I speak to the girls almost every day. They’re amazing women. There is this misconception that pageants would be based purely on beauty and all that but it’s really the opposite. It’s just a sisterhood of girls who have similar values. I’m just having an amazing time.”

According to Cynthia, ‘Miss Congeniality’ and ‘Toddlers in Tiaras’ are partly to blame for some of the negative stereotypes around pageants like Miss Ireland.

She also rejected some of the recent commentary about such contests being misogynistic or old-fashioned.

“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but I wouldn’t say it’s misogynistic. I would just say it celebrates women and what we do and what we contribute,” said Cynthia, who is sponsored by Instaglam Hair & Beauty, a local beautician in Castlebar.

She cites the previous two Miss World winners, Dr Evanna Lynch and Pamela Uba as two inspirations.

Born and reared in Castlebar to a mother who arrived from Zambia in 2003, Cynthia shares an African heritage with Pamela Uba – who hails from Ballyhaunis and who won Miss World in 2021.

Though she is a proud and lifelong Mayo woman, Cynthia is also proud to be representing the growing number of people of African descent who now call Ireland home.

“I am Irish, but I think it’s important for people to see that anybody can put themselves up for these sort of things. Even me, training to be a teacher, I know that I’m making a huge difference in the classroom in changing the way the Irish classroom looks,” she said.

“Not even 20 years ago, 40 years ago, the classroom was different to what it is now. We’ve a lot more different nationalities, more ethnicities and more cultures in the community. I think it’s something to be celebrated and be happy about.”

She also believes Ireland is a country that is welcoming of people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

“Obviously there's a huge Irish diaspora across the world and I think now that there’s other nations emigrating to Ireland, Irish people can relate to those people who are leaving their homes,” she said.

“For the most part - I can’t say everybody does - but most people are welcoming and most people are tolerant of people who are leaving their homes to set up a new life in Ireland.”

This year, Miss Ireland is partnered with the Julian Benson CF Foundation, a charity which seeks to provide services to sufferers of cystic fibrosis.

Among its aims is to build an accommodation facility in Dublin for families of people suffering with the lung disease, which affects a high proportion of Irish people.

“Many people here would know someone or maybe who know of somebody, or maybe somebody in their family, who has someone suffering from CF, so Miss Ireland’s charity partner is a really good cause and a really good initiative,” said Cynthia.

You can vote for Cynthia to win Miss Ireland by downloading the Miss Ireland app on the App Store or Google Playstore.