New venue for controversial child pageant
After exhaustive efforts lasting until late afternoon, organisers agreed with management of another Dublin hotel to stage the controversial contest.
Universal Royalty boss Annette Hill confirmed that the substitute venue had been booked, and said she would be keeping the identity of the venue a secret.
Ms Murphy, whose daughter Aisling, 9, is taking part in today’s competition, said she did not expect the families of participating children — some of who have travelled from abroad — to be informed of the new venue until late last night.
She said organisers were keeping the venue secret until as late as possible to ensure there was no repeat of Thursday night’s unexpected development, when the management of their first-choice venue abruptly pulled the plug on the event.
She said: “I don’t know where the venue is yet, but we’re going to be told later tonight where it is. But the venue has been confirmed and booked and it’s a hotel in Dublin. That’s all I know at this stage.”
Although the chiefs of Texas-based Universal Royalty had taken the precaution of booking two ‘reserve’ hotels earlier this summer, they are known to have spent much of yesterday desperately trying to confirm a new venue for today’s contest.
Their plans were thrown into chaos after their first-choice hotel, The Bracken Court in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, dramatically pulled the plug.
More than 50 youngsters — including babies and toddlers — have been booked in to take part in Universal Royalty’s first-ever Irish pageant.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald welcomed The Bracken Court hotel’s decision to cancel the pageant.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday, she said that pageants were an “inappropriate sexualisation of very young children”.
She added: “Obviously all children dress up, play at dressing up — that’s quite a contrast to the sort of dressing up that we see in these pageants.
“The amount of heavy make-up, the high heels, the frilly dresses — [are] inappropriate on a child of three, four, or five.”
Ms Fitzgerald’s comments followed earlier warnings from Senator Jillian van Turnhout who said young girls who compete in high heels and make-up are being forced into “roles of seduction”.
The children’s rights activist welcomed moves from the French parliament earlier this week to ban beauty pageants for children under the age of 16,
Welcoming the developments in France, the ISPCC said that youngsters are portrayed as “mini-adults” in the pageants.
