Tullamore turned on the style last weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the FBD Queen of the Land festival. On Friday night, the town welcomed not just this year’s crop of finalists but also 40 previous winners. These included Phyllis Finnegan (nee Ward) from Co Meath, who was the very first Queen of the Land, and the Ploughing Association’s Anna Marie McHugh, who won the title in 1989.

This year it was Orla Murphy, a nurse from Galway, who took the title, while the runners-up were Margaret Stanley representing Tipperary North and Mairead Madden, who was representing Offaly.