Liadan Hynes has worked with Rosie for 10 years and on more than 18 cover-story shoots for LIFE magazine, styling her as everything from Santa's little helper to the Virgin Mary. In her final big interview as a single person, Rosanna shares her pre-wedding excitement, as Liadan recalls the young girl she has seen grow into a woman in the public eye, through break-ups, wild phases and even a tour of the country, where a mobbed Rosie had a smile and pleasant word for everyone she met . Photography by Kip Carroll.
Rosanna Davison, the closest thing we have to a national sweetheart, is getting married in two weeks' time. And, unlike most brides-to-be, she is feeling very chilled out about the whole affair. But then, she is a former Miss World, a virtuoso of living one's life in the public eye, and of always maintaining an immaculately perfectionist level of appearance and behaviour. There are no pre-wedding nerves on display, or last-minute stress over all those tiny details. In fact, Rosanna has never seemed more relaxed, chilled out and genuinely happy.
During the 10 years of LIFE, I've worked on 18 cover stories with Rosanna. More than anyone else, she has been a poster girl for LIFE. Over the years, she's done everything for us, from dressing as a nun, through staging a riotous near-orgy in Krystle nightclub with her friends and posing as Santa's little helper, to dressing up with fiance, Wes Quirke, as Mary and Joseph.
In the last two months, I've done two shoots with her and, on both occasions, she was her usual, generally unruffled self. When we spoke for this interview, Rosanna was immersed in the last-minute wedding details, but still remained totally unfazed.
I once spent three days in a car with Rosanna Davison. We were touring Ireland for a LIFE feature, a sort of light-hearted State of the Nation. I remember being struck by how little Rosanna had travelled in Ireland. When we hit a nice beach, say, her comparisons were all Caribbean.
I learnt several things on that trip about the girl who, almost alone, genuinely could lay claim to that most overused title: Ireland's top model. The self-confessed former "tomboy", who told me she'd almost no interest in make-up before winning the Miss World title at the age of 19, may be the most well-groomed person one could ever meet.
Five o'clock starts in the back end of west Galway for breakfast with a bean an ti, or to head out on a fishing trip in Dingle in the still-dark morning, were faced by an immaculately groomed Rosie in full make-up. But, then, I suppose when you're constantly under scrutiny, you become less inclined to offer up the barefaced, unadorned version of yourself for public consumption. Being in Miss World, "where they all trowelled it on", she says now, set a certain standard.
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