Organisers have two ‘back up’ venues for child beauty pageant

The worried organiser of a contentious US-themed child beauty pageant has booked two extra venues in Dublin — just in case management at the hotel where it is due to be staged pull the plug on the event.

Texas-based Universal Royalty said more than 50 youngsters — many of who are babies and toddlers — had been signed up to take part in their first-ever Irish pageant next week.

But boss Annette Hill admitted she has taken the added precaution of booking two other reserve venues as a back-up plan, should her first choice hotel fall through for the scheduled contest next Saturday, Sep 21.