Nigerian-born Pamela Uba made history as the first Black woman to win the Miss Ireland pageant for the first time since the event started in 1947, thereby breaking through a 74-year barrier.
Uba was crowned Miss Ireland 2021 on September 5th, 2021.
She shared the news via her Instagram page on Monday, September 13, adding that it still felt like a dream.
“It’s like a dream come true. Words can’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling right now or have been feeling for the past week leading up to the final.”
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Here are some things to know about her.
1. Pamela Uba was born in 1995 to Nigerian parents in South Africa.
2. She left South Africa for Ireland as an asylum seeker with her family when she was seven. According to her, she cried when she got her Irish passport.
3. She is the eldest of six siblings.
4. She played football as a teenager.
5. She got her degree in medical science from Galway and furthered her education at Trinity College Dublin with a master’s degree in clinical chemistry.
6. Uba worked at the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic surge in the country as a medical scientist at the Galway University Hospital. Her job at the hospital was to monitor the inflammatory process in patients who had contracted COVID-19.
7. Uba’s journey into pageantry began in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she emerged as Miss Galway, even without any prior modeling experience.
8. With her recent win as Miss Ireland, she would be representing the country in the 70th Miss World Competition, scheduled to be held in December 2021.
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