Miss Dublin Wins Contest – Amharc Éireann: Eagrán 126

In the Abbey Dance Hall in Drogheda, a group of ladies from 6 counties competed in the finals of a beauty contest to be crowned Miss Mannequin 1961.

Local beauty contests were very popular in Ireland in the 1950s and ‘60s. Contestants traveled from all over Ireland (including Meath, Kilkenny, Kildare and Dublin) to take part in the event. The winner on this occasion was Dubliner Deirdre Ní Rinn.

Produced by Gael Linn, Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) is Ireland’s longest-running indigenous newsreel series. It was distributed to cinemas throughout the country to  promote the Irish language. The first 36 issues were produced as single-topic films which were released monthly, followed in 1959 by weekly, multi-story newsreels featuring a broad range of topics, from hard news stories to lighter magazine-style items. Between 1956 and 1964, 267 editions of the newsreel were produced for cinema exhibition.

To see more of the Gael Linn Collection, click here.

With kind permission of Gael Linn.