Trouble as business and beauty collide

THERE was something curious about Niamh Redmond, hair scraped back in a stern bun, engaging in a public row with the organiser of Ireland's national beauty competition in a Dublin hotel on Wednesday night. The Miss Ireland contest has been many things but never controversial.

When Ms Redmond won the contest in August it was inconceivable that nine months later she would scowl out from the pages of newspapers, looking the antithesis of the traditional beauty queen.

There had been one, briefly upsetting, moment early in her reign when Ms Redmond was criticised for appearing in an advertisement for a contraceptive. Nevertheless great things were forecast for the 19 year old finance student.

As she got ready for the Miss World final in India last November, a Limerick business man was preparing to take over the competition. Kieran Murray seems to have wanted a more commercial contest. A spokeswoman (he favours third party dealings) says he would like to see the event televised.

"He wants to bring [Miss Ireland] into line with the rest of the world. His research shows that the contest is not really valued by the country any more. He wants to change that," she says.

His first break with tradition was the decision not to send Niamh Redmond to compete for Miss Universe in Miami Beach. Ms Redmond had not lived up to, bookmakers expectations at Miss World. Mr Murray concluded that the third placed contestant in the Miss Ireland competition, Fiona Mullally from Limerick, should take part instead.

While he was contractually within his rights to make such a move, the furore that followed offered a closer look at the beauty pageant industry.

In the decades before Niamh Redmond went on RTE radio and poured out her heart to Marian Finucane about not being chosen for Miss Universe, the public seemed only mildly interested in Miss Ireland.

We knew that once a year shopgirls, students and part time models donned skimpy swimsuits and talked about travelling the world and keeping Ireland green.

The winner would shed elegant tears and drink champagne in bed surrounded by a posse of tabloid photographers. Infinitely more glamorous than the Rose of Tralee, everything was worthy of scrutiny, not least a contestant's cellulite.

But this, it emerges, was only official Miss Ireland. For instance, contracts and rules and hidden fees were not mentioned. In addition, the £1,000 cash prize is paid in monthly instalments of £100. Miss Ireland's UK counterpart wins £7,000 and a commitment that she will earn at least three times that during her reign.

Few knew that the Miss Ireland contract entitled the organiser to 20 per cent of any money earned by her on the strength of her crown.

For her part, Niamh Redmond did not know that winning Miss Ireland would not automatically entitle her to take part in other contests such as Miss Universe and Miss Europe. Future contestants, warns Ms Redmond now, should read the small print.

"I signed the contract before the Miss Ireland final and didn't really think much about it because I didn't think I would win I would advise others to be more careful and to demand to be told exactly which contests you will be attending during your reign," she says.

Ms Redmond claims she has spoken to Mr Murray only twice: "In future he should communicate more. It seems much more logical to me that Miss Ireland should represent the country at all competitions," she says.

While most people sympathise with her some are more pragmatic: "I always find it difficult to understand why people get upset about this perfectly acceptable practice," says Eric Morley, founder of the Miss Ireland and also the Miss World competition, which has earned $150,000,000 for charity since it began in 1950.

"If a country has a football team they don't send the same players all the time to compete for the various cups. It is common practice all over the world on the beauty pageant scene".

Mr Morley, an Englishman, founded Miss Ireland in 1949, held in the Plaza Ballroom in Belfast, as a reaction to what he saw as the declining standards of dress in the country's dancehalls. Whatever about the sartorial improvements, the Miss Ireland franchise was eventually leased by Miss World to various interested entrepreneurs here.

In 1980, Krish Naidoo, a South African living here since 1968, took charge. The first winner under his stewardship was a student called Michelle Rocca, undoubtedly the most well known Miss Ireland.

Mr Naidoo says he took over Miss Ireland Beauty Pageant, as a marketing tool for his night club Rumours in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin. His charity work was also a motivation in 17 years he raised £300,000 for children's charities through the competition.

Speaking for the first time since the row began, Mr Naidoo says the affair was "handled badly".

"Having said that there were a lot of nasty things said about Kieran which were totally unfair. I would advise him just to keep having total respect for the girls. If he loses that he can forget it," says Mr Naidoo.

Meanwhile, Kieran Murray, with his hopes of relaunching a much larger Miss Ireland competition, will probably have mixed feelings regarding the week's events.

Money could not have bought the publicity Miss Ireland has recently received. On the other hand, everyone knows him now", says Mr Naidoo.

"It remains to be seen whether that's good or bad."