Demi-Nicole Lanigan , one of the youngest contestants in the Miss England 2022 final has been invited to represent Ireland in the Supertalent contest due to her Irish family roots.  The contest takes place over 8 days in Seoul Korea in May as a fashion show style extravaganza .

Here, the reigning Miss Stockport (17) talks about her Irish roots and why representing Ireland means so much to her proud mum & family . 

The house Demi’s grandparents & family lived

“My family come from a town called Lucan, just west from Dublin. My great grandad worked in the woollen mills in Lucan. My grandad & 6 brothers 1 sister all grew up & lived in a house called ‘ounavarra’ which is a Gaelic word for ‘shearing of the sheep’ see the picture of this. They all lived together in just 2 rooms!

My great grandmother Annie Lanigan was a great violin player , she encouraged her daughters, and nieces to start Irish dancing lessons. This tradition was carried down from my grandad to my mum when she was younger who danced from the age of 5-16 .

My cousin is “Brendan Brady”  a world champion irish dancer and now has his own Irish dancing school in America.  As my grandad came from a big family when he was younger, they used to love having a singsong , dance and play music.

My grandads brother Patrick Lanigan used to play the accordion, unfortunately due to spina bifida  he passed away at the age of 21. However still to this day, where he grew up people still remember him playing. When I was younger my grandad put me into violin lessons at the age of 8. I then tried to continue with this throughout lockdown.

Finding out I was representing ireland has already brought lots of my family together as unfortunately we have lost many family members over the years.

Demi’s mum did Irish dancing as a child up until the age of 16

My taking part in this contest will bring us all together to celebrate on a positive note, instead of seeing each other at funerals and this will spread joy and happiness.

I intend to take up Irish dancing lessons to follow in the footsteps of my family and my mum, to carry on the tradition as I feel like due to modernisation, sometimes this tradition can be lost along the way so I want to continue this.

Demi in Miss England 2022 representing Stockport

“ Most importantly, I want to make my mum proud in every aspect. As being a single mother bringing me up as a child, she has shown me resilience, determination and helped me to believe I can achieve anything. My mum has always been my main supporter and I wouldn’t have got this far without her.

Demi-Nicole studied Law, Business, and History at college for a year, however she then decided to join my family’s business with plumbing and heating.

The Lanigan family crest

“I want to help grow the business as my family mean the most to me and I will do what I can to help, as they have helped me massively.  Family are like branches on a tree we all grow in different directions but our roots remain the same . I’m very proud of my irish heritage and even prouder to show off The Lanigan family crest!”

To interview Demi-Nicole contact [email protected]