Cancellation of child beauty pageant in Belfast welcomed

Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout has welcomed the decision of US beauty pageant organisers to cancel their contest in Belfast planned for this coming Saturday.

Last month, competitions planned for Dublin and Cork were also cancelled.

The children’s rights campaigner told the Seanad she wanted to mark the “wonderful news that Universal Royalty pageant boss, Annette Hill’s planned child beauty pageant in Belfast has been cancelled.

She said the reason for the withdrawal was unclear but "I suspect that Northern Ireland did not afford Ms Hill the warm welcome that she had anticipated."

Ms van Turnhout said “an all-island consensus opposing child beauty pageants I believe is a victory for common sense and people power”.

In March Ms van Turnhout introduced a motion in the Seanad condemning such beauty contests for children and it was passed unanimously by the Upper House. She said she would push for legislation against such contests.

Then minister for children Frances Fitzgerald described child beauty contests as a "theft of childhood". During the Seanad debate on the issue she said she wanted Ireland to be a "cold house for child pageants", and that "catapulting young girls and young boys into a sexuality for which they are neither physically or cognitively ready is a form of theft".

Ms Fitzgerald, now Minister for Justice said this kind of pageantry “runs counter to the values set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

Attempts to hold what has been called a toddlers and tiaras-style competition in Ireland last year failed after hotel and other venues withdrew support for them and a small show took place in a bar.

Renewed attempts by Universal Royalty Pageants again this year to host a competition also failed because of the intensity of the campaign against them.

Ms van Turnhout thanked Senators and people on both sides of the border because “we we so vocal in our opposition”.

She also thanked hotels and venues that stood fast in tough economic times against the hosting of the pageant on their premises.

Seanad leader Maurice Cummins also welcomed the cancellation of the pageant and said it was correct that such contests "do not take place in this country or in Northern Ireland".