An event that every teenager in Kilkenny was looking forward to, has stirred up a controversy with a Facebook post.

The Kilkenny Ball, that is regularly hosted in Kilkenny’s Pegasus Nightclub banned teenage girls from wearing "deplorable" formal dresses with plunging necklines.

Fusion Ball shared a post on its Facebook page urging its female guests, attending the next ball, to keep their outfits "neat and discreet.”

The post said, "Due to the deplorable dresses at the last ball it is necessary to fully enforce a knee-length dress with no plunging neckline dress code for the mid-term ball.”

"Any of the following dresses or any dresses similar to the following will not be accepted on the night. Keep it neat and discreet ladies," it read, alongside images of dresses.

The dress code prescribed by the event managers requires boys to wear a shirt and tie, slacks and shoes, while girls are required to wear a knee-length dress and shoes, including sandals, heels or flat pumps.

After the post was put up online, it sparked massive backlash, while others mocked the post in comments on the social media page.

However, Fusion Ball stuck to its guns and argued, “We always asked for neat and discreet. But too many broke the rule. All we are asking for is the girls to be discreet."

It added, "We organise these events for 15-year-old children to attend in a safe, supervised and fun environment. Our formal dresses uk code has always been in place, since our first ball in 2005. We put up a reminder of this before every ball and we also have it on the back of all tickets."

One user commented, “I don't have girls but I have to say I was very uncomfortable with your post. Are we raising independent women or going back to the 80s where young girls had babies in grottos and died? I'm not going to be drawn into an argument on this but I just felt the phrase "keep it neat and discreet ladies" was a poor choice of words.”

Meanwhile, another user, backing the statement said, “Well done about time someone took a stand. Our beautiful clever bright teenagers are being encouraged by media to be mere sex symbols and playthings for men. They should be applauded for their creative thinking their independence their intellect their emotional intelligence and their personality and not on looks.”