Triple Threat! Three Limerick finalists in the running for Miss Ireland 2026

THREE Limerick women are promoting “beauty with a purpose” as they prepare to take centre stage at the Miss Ireland 2026 Grand Final.

Leah Marie Sheehan, 24, has been crowned Miss Limerick; Juliette Pinson, 23, is Miss Limerick City; and Kornelia Pawlonka, 18, is Miss Limerick South West.

The three finalists will proudly fly the flag for Limerick as they compete for the coveted Miss Ireland crown on Saturday, November 21, at The Fairways Hotel, Dundalk.

Now celebrating its 78th year, the competition will bring together finalists from across Ireland for an evening of glamour, entertainment and excitement as the search for the next Miss Ireland reaches its glittering finale.

For Leah and Juliette, this isn’t their first time appearing on stage together, having starred as Sandy and Rizzo in the musical Grease during a production at their alma mater, Castletroy College.

Leah first entered Miss Limerick when she was 18, during Covid.

“I'd never done anything like that before. They reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested - I didn't even place that year but I just had such a fantastic experience,” she explained.

The 24-year-old then decided to go for Miss Universe Ireland this past June and ended up coming first runner-up, with fellow Limerick woman Aideen Howard taking the crown.

Following that success, she decided to give Miss Limerick another go.

“I’m very, very happy to be Miss Limerick now”

The Annacotty woman graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Limerick last year, is a qualified phlebotomist, and currently works in In Vitro Diagnostics.

“A huge part of Miss Ireland is beauty with a purpose,” Leah explained, adding that philanthropy is a “massive” part of the organisation.

The charity partner for the Miss Ireland competition this year is Ronald McDonald House, which Leah described as a “crazy coincidence” for her and her family.

She explained that they lost her brother, Kevin, a number of years ago, and her parents stayed in Ronald McDonald House at the time.

“It’s so full circle.”

Leah is campaigning to have every defibrillator in Limerick registered, an issue that is close to her heart: “A couple years ago, my dad had a few strokes. He had just come home from the hospital and one morning woke up with chest pain. The ambulance that we'd called told us to go and get the nearest defibrillator.

“I'd always known where it was in our local village so I said ‘great, I'll go and get it’. When I got there, I called the number to get the code to access it and no one answered the phone, the volunteers were busy. It then redirects you automatically to 999 but because it wasn't registered, the 999 operator didn't have the code so we couldn't access it.”

She explained that it was an issue she “just couldn’t forget about”.

“I started an audit across Limerick. I reached out to the AED coordinator in the HSE and she helped me figure out which ones in Limerick were registered. I found 33 defibrillators across Limerick and only seven of them were actually registered.”

Leah added that the estimate is that across the country about 50% of defibrillators are unregistered.

She explained that the Miss Limerick platform is already helping her push the cause, adding that winning Miss Ireland would give her “an incredible platform” to keep bringing it forward.

“It would be just the honour of a lifetime to win Miss Ireland.”

As the Miss Ireland competition is aligned with the Miss World international competition, the woman that becomes Miss Ireland will get the opportunity to go to Tanzania to compete for the Miss World title.

Miss Limerick City, Juliette, says her journey started when she did her undergrad in Applied Physics at UL.

“I knew very early on that I wanted to use that knowledge for good,” she explained.

A Castletroy native, Juliette volunteers as an emergency first responder and search & rescuer with Limerick Civil Defence.

She has just finished her Master's in Medical Physics in the University of Galway, during which she went to Imperial College London and learned about proton therapy.

“That was really the fuel that made me apply for Miss Ireland.”

Juliette explained that proton therapy is “a really targeted and really precise form of radiotherapy to treat cancer”, but added that there is currently no facility for it in Ireland.

She said: “A big career goal of mine would be to advocate for a proton facility here in Ireland and I thought what's the best way to get my research out there and raise awareness and I saw an ad for Miss Ireland and I said, you know what, we'll just go for it and see how it pans out.

“If I was to win Miss Ireland,” Juliette said, “I'd hope it would open doors for me to speak to government bodies and things like that. I'd love to meet the Minister for Health and to speak to her about the feasibility and possibility of building a proton therapy facility here in Ireland one day in the future.”

She added: “This is very much a lifelong thing for me, I'm not just doing it for Miss Ireland. I'm very much doing Miss Ireland to raise awareness about things that I'm already doing and already passionate about.”

Miss Limerick South West, Kornelia Pawlonka is from a Polish family and was born and raised in Newcastle West, County Limerick.

She has recently started studying Business Studies with Event Management in TUS, Limerick.

Kornelia said she is “so grateful and excited” to start her Miss Ireland journey.

“I am really proud of myself for applying for Miss Ireland because it pushed me outside of my comfort zone and gave me the confidence to believe in myself and take a chance. I have always struggled speaking in front of big crowds, and to be honest, I still do. So I hope I can learn from this and become more confident speaking in front of crowds by doing this more,” she said

One of the things Kornelia is passionate about using her platform for is suicide prevention and mental health awareness, and she is proud to be supporting Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention through her new role.

She explained: “I want to help create an environment where people feel comfortable speaking about how they are feeling without fear of judgement. I believe that even one conversation can make someone feel heard, supported and less alone, and I would be proud to use my voice to encourage those conversations.”

The women have a busy few weeks ahead before the final, with a head-to-head challenge on November 7, where they must give a speech about what they’re advocating for.

They also have a sports day coming up, and the women have a variety of fundraising events organised for the near future.

The fundraisers come in all forms, with one of Juliette’s being that every cannoli bought in Tuscany Bistro restaurants during the month of October will go towards the Irish Cancer Society, her charity of choice.

Leah is organising a raffle with prizes from a range of local businesses, while Juliette also arranged a colours day in Castletroy College, raising close to €3,000.