IT started Out as a simple PR exercise, but it quickly turned into a slanging match with the Miss Ireland organisers on one side and the friends of Miss Ireland on the other. During the fashionable face off last night things got at bit personal and blows were almost exchanged. But, in the end, the altercation cooled off.

At the centre of the row was the fact that Kieran Murray, organiser of this year's Miss Ireland pageant, had overlooked the winner of the competition, Niamh Redmond, for the forthcoming Miss Universe contest. Instead, he had chosen Fiona Mullaly, who came third in the Miss Ireland event, to represent Ireland in Miami on May 16th.

The occasion was the announcement of the "Search for Miss Ireland 1997" and Annabel's nightclub in Dublin's Burlington Hotel was stuffed with beauty queens, models and media types, gathered together to hear details of the Miss Ireland Grand Final and Coronation Ball, to be held at the hotel on August 25th.

Presiding over the media event for the first time was Mr Murray, the new business face behind the Miss Ireland pageant and the successor to Krish Naidoo.

As the guests arrived they were handed a press release from publicist Chris Roche, which was filled with praise for Niamh Redmond. "She has been a fabulous Miss Ireland", gushed the publicity. "She has been a great ambassador for the country.

But these honeyed words were not enough to mollify Ms Redmond's family or her agent. When Kieran Murray presented himself for a routine question and answer session, Ms Redmond's supporters dived straight in and made their strong feelings known. The formal PR speech became at heated debate, with the Redmond family and Assets Modelling Agency on one side, and Mr Murray and Krish and Leila Naidoo on the other.

The RTE camera crew nearly fell over itself trying to capture the whole contretemps on film. Mr Murray stuck to his guns, claiming that Ms Redmond had been properly reimbursed by her stint as Miss Ireland and that she should now gracefully abandon her crusade. A spokesperson from Assets Modelling Agency, which represents Ms Redmond, rebutted with tales of danger, deprivation and dehydration during the Miss World pageant in India.

It was clear that the corporate Miss Ireland camp felt that Ms Redmond had had her IS minutes of fame and should not now begrudge someone else a chance at the Miss Universe. It was equally clear that Ms Redmond felt hard done by, having given her heart and soul to represent Ireland as its first lady of beauty, only to be snubbed in favour of someone who had trailed in a mere third.

In the midst of all the bad blood it emerged that Niamh Redmond and her rival, Fiona Mullaly, bear no ill will towards each other and that the animosity is mostly aimed at Kieran Murray, who had made the final contentious choice. As the donnybrook died down in the Burlington nightclub, those who hadn't walked out in a huff raised their glasses again and agreed that, although Mr Murray had every right to choose whom he liked to represent Ireland in the Miss Universe contest, the whole thing had been handled rather badly.