Ivanna McMahon, from Barefield, Ennis, was crowned Miss Ireland 2022 at The Royal Theatre Castlebar in August 2022 as she became the official representative of Ireland at Miss World 2023. Since then, Ivanna has been preparing for her international stint as she juggles between being a doctor and a beauty queen.

Ivanna studied medicine at University College Cork and graduated in 2020.  She went on to do her internship at Cork University Hospital and did cardiology and neurology. Then she went to University Hospital Tralee to work in surgery. She worked in the GP Scheme at Tralee General Hospital throughout the pandemic, which is where the love of the pageantry began.

Ivanna also talked about how it was life on the frontlines that ironically taught her to grab the glamorous opportunity with both hands. “We actually graduated six weeks early. They brought forward our exams, so we went straight into it [work]. That was a bit daunting at the time. But I got through it and so did everyone else”, she quoted.

An avid musician, Ivanna is most looking forward to the talent section and performing a piece on the harp. “I love playing music, so that’s an easy one for me,” she says. She started playing the Harp at the age of 13 and has played with the National Irish Harp Orchestra and toured Germany and Austria.  She also plays 6 other instruments including the Drums, Harmonica, Fiddle, Boughran and Tin Whistle and won all Ireland Championships for Drums and Harmonica.

Ivanna is also a fluent Irish speaker who has another trick up her sleeve in her bid to succeed Miss World 2022 Karolina Bielawska of Poland at the finale this year. “I think it’s really, really important to keep up the practice in Irish, keep speaking it and bring more [awareness] to it around the world because it is such a beautiful language. It would be a pity for it to die away. We should be incredibly proud of our Irish traditions — of our heritage and our language — and I’d definitely like to bring that to Miss World with me”, she says.

For ‘beauty with a purpose’, Ivanna has also been touring the country for school talks, charity events, and fundraisers. With such a strong purpose, her delectable charm and a strong educational background makes her a strong contender for the Miss World 2023 crown.

After a lot of postponement, Miss World 2023 is scheduled to be held in India in March this year where Karolina Bielawska of Poland will crown her successor at the end of the event finale.