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THE MINISTER FOR Children Frances Fitzgerald will continue “to monitor” the beauty pageant situation in Ireland and “whether there is a need for further action”.
This comes as the organisers of a controversial child beauty pageant which took place in Monaghan last week signalled their intention to stage up to four more contests in Ireland next year.
The Texas-based Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant was forced to find a last minute venue for the contest after the Bracken Court Hotel in Balbriggan cancelled the organiser’s booking, stating that they were not honest about the nature of the contest.
The organisers of the contest held the pageant in a pub in Monaghan.
Back of a pub
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the minister said she “welcomed the fact that the force of public opinion in Ireland forced last week’s event to be moved to the back of a pub”.
She added that she hopes “that public opinion will continue to play a role in ensuring any further attempts to hold such pageants are also dissuaded”.
When asked if Ireland will follow in France’s footsteps and ban child beauty pageants altogether she said that while the French Senate did vote last week on a possible ban, as she understands it, “this is not likely to be implemented in the way proposed”.
No place in Ireland
Last week, Senator Jillian Van Turnhout called for a ban on child beauty pageants telling TheJournal.ie that she thought child beauty pageants had “no place in Ireland”.
She added that she would be looking into how legislatively it can be handled in the future and called on Seanad and Oireachtas members for support.
Minister Fitzgerald said she felt “strongly that we need to address issues in relation to the sexualisation of children” which is why she has previously worked with Retail Ireland to introduce the first guidelines on the responsible retailing of childrenswear.
A Children’s Beauty Contest …… In the back of a pub….. That says it all!!!
I’m glad mine are getting muddy playing outside
Different strokes for different folks
It would be nice if the government could be proactive & just put a blanket ban on them. Its disgraceful
Typically Irish response! “Sure it’ll be grand, we’ll keep an eye on it…” Followed up by…nothing.
She needs to get off the fence
Held in the back of a pub !!!
It gets classier by the second !
You could argue its for the public good,but who decides what is good for you and what is not,we had one organisation in this country that preached all about public morality on the one hand,but on the other failed utterly to take their own advice.
I truly cannot understand how a Minister in our country is seeking to interfere with the lawful activities of a legitimate firm undertaking legitimate business practice.
If the minister doesn’t like it at a regulatory level then she should ban it. If there is no ban then she has no business commenting on and interfering. Imagine the uproar if she started doing this to party zones or youth clubs or any other business endeavour she doesn’t like.
She is acting way beyond her power / remit in my opinion.
Go back to bed
Where could one get tickets for that…
@Hairy. Im going to chose to believe that you just threw this in to stir things up and that your head is devoid of any grey matter. These competitions are a disgusting and viel way of treating children. I agree with other comments in calling for a blanket ban by goverment. Its about time they did something useful.
Eh- slight difference with child beauty pageants and playzone- or else my kids are TOTALLY underdressed for playzone!!
Sean – the competition is completely legal. There is nothing to legally prevent it happening. The person responsible for making that happen is…. the minister for Children. She cannot do that by simply hissing and spitting at a legitimate business.
There are lots of other businesses that I don’t like. Tobacco being one of them which actively seeks to attract young children into it’s addictive products that we know kill people.
You may not like these contests – fine. Don’t send your kids to them, don’t watch them, don’t support them (I don’t). But to have a minister of our government calling for a boycott of a legitimate business is insane.
As for ‘disgusting a vial’ (sic) that is completely subjective and has no founding in fact. You are spouting off your particular tastes – which is fine as an individual. But not if you are a minister of the government.
My guess is the kids like them, the adults like them, they are generally good clean fun. I personally don’t want my kids involved – but a democracy is not about forcing your views down everyone else’s throat.
HL
I dont see any difference between child beauty pagents and the pageantry that is in irish dancing competitions amongst our young female population in this country .they are as vad if not worse because not only do you have to be made up ie make up hair and dress you are pushed to their limits mentally and physically to complete a dance routine. !!!!! I must ask the question who does this benefit the driven mums.to what gain I can’t see any difference ..I would hope that some one could look at the pagentry/ exploitation that tskes place right under our noses… well does any one agree??????
@ Regina.. , you contradict yourself by saying that yes they are over the top and the parents are the only ones that get any pleasure out if it.. Well if that’s the case surely you’ll agree that the children ARE suffering?? How is a child to know its own mind??? Forced into these competitions by parents that aren’t stable by any means.. Have you seen toddlers and tiaras ? Also, no one is calling for a ban on Irish dancing but there is an uproar about all the make up & fake tan on the children which shouldn’t be allowed at all . Our government should be more proactive by banning these toddler competitions which only attract weirdos to them .. but of course they won’t because they’re all talk and no action … Roll on the next election!
Sure if that’s the case we need also ban shows like Britain’s got talent we’re kids as young as 6 are in fierce gruelling competition and then been told by judges in front of live audiences ‘its not good enough’ How is that any different to pagents?
Erm, no. Competitive dance is a world away from a charade where kids are dressed/sprayed/teased in order to look “beautiful” and, more importantly, stripped of their individual personalities to learn off scripted replies in order to please a panel qualified in…what exactly? Competitive dance is more akin to a sporting activity and is an admirable discipline, in my opinion. Costumes are worn, sure, but every sport has its own attire…
We could just ban them cause they’re sh@te.
Irish dancing comps definitely need regulating you’re right! I would love my daughter to do it as I did but the way it has gone I wouldn’t let her
Oh you will ban these “paedo fests” minister.
If you ever wish to see the inside of the dail again you will .
I don’t like these contests and I personally wouldn’t want any of my children involved, but I’m amazed at the reaction of people about them. Is there any proof that they attract child molesters ? I mean we were all encouraged to be part of activities in the church, and look at the history there. I’m not aware of any similar stories from the child beauty contest world. Does anybody have proof otherwise? Yes they are totally OTT and the children are often only keeping their mums happy, but in and of themselves, are they really so bad? I’ve seen children looking made up with false hair and skimpy dresses at Irish dancing competitions and I haven’t heard a call to ban Irish dancing. As I said, I don’t personally agree with them, but if we banned everything we don’t agree with, life would be very dull. As long as nobody is suffering , as long as the children are safe , I say live and let live.
Regina there is a swim wear section sick sick sick
Tis sick alright Richard but, one saving grace that the swim wear section wasn’t in the Irish one.
What exactly is sick about swimwear,when everyone on the beach young and old wears them, get a grip.
What a stupid remark. They’re not swimming. They’re nowhere near a body of water.
Maybe you could explain to us stupid people what exactly they are doing.
I had to do a double take after reading this article. Child beauty contests? Another good reason to get rid of the Senate – we’ll hear less from Jillian Van Turnhout. The sexualization of children? If we were really serious about stopping that, we’d shut down the Sunday Independent.
I am confused by your obscure references! Please fill in some more detail if you want to comment and have others fully understand your position.
Thejournal.ie should be printing stories on child poverty and not child beauty contests. All this hullabaloo about the so-called “sexualization of children” is fake moral outrage. Clear enough for you?
Why don’t you set up Paulcarr.ie and write your own articles about issues that you deem worthy. Child poverty and child sexualization go hand in hand across the world from Thailand to Europe. Viewing children as objects is a gobal issue.
A child sexualization crisis is bullshit. A child poverty crisis is real.
It is the sexualisation of young children, why the hell can’t parents just let their kids be kids! The Irish govt bangs on about the protection of the child (and rightly so), they should make a stand and ban these events.
Well we do not want to turn into a Nanny state either.If a parent feels it is ok to parade babies and toddlers around the back room of a pub dressed inappropriately then that is there decision.If they wish to bring their children up to believe their future is in their beauty,to be successful in life you need to be beautiful and skinny then let them.What I would like to see is some sort of regulation on the lower age limit,maybe from eight upwards when the children are old enough to understand and have some say in what they doing.
The majority of these children have zero say in competing. A nanny state is a very different concept to a state where children are valued and protected. These pagents are disgraceful, the sad emphasis on having your child ‘bettered’ with fake teeth,fake tan, fake hair, waxing and tweezing nutures feelings of insecurity and poor self worth among children. This is not a sport, it is a dire attempt by fat loser, uneducated, parents trying to live vicariously through their children and failing miserably.
All of the international paedophile rings discovered in recent months have had Irish connections and it has to be asked if they source some of their material here? Video editing is relatively easy these days and keep in mind how fast the photos of that kid at Slane went around the world.
It’s the parents that should be banned!
Worrying about child beauty pageants, how sad, just let them get on with it, at least it keeps the contestants obese forty something mums entertained.
I doubt this one could even monitor her own blood sugar levels if she was diabetic.
Monitor what?! They said they’ll be back next yr. Now is the time to start the ball rolling with a ban. A lukewarm sentiment if you ask me!
I cannot believe some of the stupidity on this thread. This is called freedom of speech and expression people…. you may not like it but that is what happens in a democracy.
What’s next on this Ministers cross-hairs…. Bonnie baby photos to be banned, female footballers wearing shorts to be sent off the pitch until they cover up to a more ‘appropriate level’, kids bikinis for the beach being burned in retail stores….
We have states like that already. If you want to live in them head east to sunnier climes…. and bring your Burka.
Red thumb away – the wisdom of crowds in action!
I agree that these “pageants” give a very bad message to children, and a swimwear competition is certainly inappropriate, but I don’t find them more offensive than parents letting boys play with pretend machine guns (can we call it “militarization” of children?).
Maybe organizers should rename them “talent” contests and everyone would be pleased
The way Europe’s going they’ll soon be wearing burkas, just in case we arouse the uncivilized
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