{"id":605274,"date":"2026-08-26T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/605274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:24:13","slug":"my-tiktok-was-flooded-suad-mooge-on-irelands-rose-of-tralee-navigating-backlash-and-celebrating-identity-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/605274\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My TikTok was flooded\u2019: Suad Mooge on Ireland\u2019s Rose of Tralee, navigating backlash and celebrating identity | Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week marked the climax of Ireland\u2019s Rose of Tralee festival, an annual celebration of Irish women, culture and the Irish diaspora. When Suad Mooge was chosen as Dublin\u2019s participant in the festival<\/a> earlier this year, she quickly became a symbol of Ireland\u2019s fraught conversation around immigration and what constitutes Irish identity.<\/p>\n

I caught up with Suad on a video call a week after the festival\u2019s culmination, and found someone reflective and determined in the face of criticism.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why not?\u2019\u2026 Suad Mooge submitted her own entry to the Rose of Tralee competition. Photograph: Fennell Photography\/Dublin Rose Centre<\/p>\n

Suad is a wellspring of energy. Personable, open and radiating so much charm. More than anything, though, there is a sort of sororal girlhood about her. One can immediately see why she was chosen as Dublin\u2019s Rose from among 39 competitors, and therefore the city\u2019s representative in the wider Rose of Tralee festival. I asked Suad what prompted her to enter. Why not, she thought, after seeing an Instagram ad that made her realise you can simply nominate yourself. She applied then forgot all about it, until she received a notification that she had been selected. She went on to be named the Dublin Rose, and proceeded to the nationwide stage.<\/p>\n

The 10 days before the overall winner is crowned at the culmination of the festival are a whirlwind affair, Suad tells me. All the roses go on a tour of Ireland<\/a>, meeting with the public, attending cultural events \u2013 Irish dancing, singing and sports \u2013 until they finally arrive in Tralee for the televised events and the finale. Everywhere they went, Suad tells me, they received a \u201chuge welcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

A viral backlash<\/p>\n

\u2018Some bits were fun \u2026 people commenting online was a bit mad\u2019 \u2013 Suad on her Dublin Rose experience. Photograph: Dublin Rose Centre<\/p>\n

But that warm in-person reception came in tandem with a huge viral onslaught. \u201cEven when I first got elected as Dublin Rose,\u201d Mooge recalls, \u201cIn the first 24 hours there were 10,000 tweets. Then it was 20,000, 50,000.\u201d Many of those comments and posts questioned Suad\u2019s right to participate as someone of Somali heritage, and veered into racism and abuse. \u201cMy TikTok was completely flooded. Some bits were fun. I got to go on TV and do the Six O\u2019Clock Show, but the incoming of people commenting online was a bit mad.\u201d She had to lock her accounts and stay off her phone. Even rightwing US media picked up on the news<\/a>, and dog-whistled about a \u201cSomali Muslim\u201d in the contest.<\/p>\n

Suad says it was \u201chard\u201d to be at the centre of the backlash. The contest was already \u201cphysically and emotionally overwhelming\u201d, with early starts and late nights, but the experience became even more difficult due to the discourse around her. But she remembers the other women with her \u2013 she was one of 32 \u2013 and how they helped and supported each other.<\/p>\n

An Irish cultural institution<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a lot of reclaiming\u2019 \u2026 on the post-colonial resurgence of Irish culture. Photograph: Andres Poveda\/RT\u00c9\/Rose of Tralee<\/p>\n

The Rose of Tralee, which culminates with a final in the titular town of Tralee, County Kerry, is a particularly unique Irish festival. In its 66th year, its purpose is \u201cbringing back that Irish connection,\u201d Suad says, between the Irish at home and the Irish diaspora abroad, and \u201ccelebrating it\u201d, with Irish women at the core. When we start talking about Irish culture, how much she learned during the festival and the tour of Ireland, she brims with excitement. She quotes John B Keane, a famous dramatist and author from Kerry, who captured the beauty of the county that stunned her when she visited it; there are \u201ctwo kingdoms \u2014 the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Kerry\u201d.<\/p>\n

She references how there has been a recent resurgence of pride in Irish culture<\/a>, including traditional music and the Gaelic language, after hundreds of years of colonial erasure due to British occupation. \u201cWe were forced not to speak our language any more, but Irish is having such a comeback; everybody is doing Irish lessons. Irish culture is everywhere now; there\u2019s a real pride in it, there\u2019s a lot of reclaiming, we still came out on top and still have our culture. And people want to integrate and become part of this culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sunny denial<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to face it\u2019 \u2026 Suad on racism and xenophobia in Ireland. Photograph: Andres Poveda\/RT\u00c9\/Rose of Tralee<\/p>\n

One of the problems of this positively inclined predisposition, Suad tells me, is that uncomfortable conversations are avoided. The response to racism and xenophobia is often: \u201c\u2018Oh, it\u2019s grand, it\u2019s grand. It\u2019s just a couple of eejits.\u2019 We just brush things under the rug. A few things can be true at the same time. Yes, there is a lot of noise online and in person everyone is lovely. In the same breath, there is an issue. We need to face it. Otherwise these people will just continue sharing these ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes that immigration to Ireland, when compared with immigration to the UK, for example, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Her family came to Ireland in the mid-90s and were the only Somali people in their area. Since then, the rate of immigration has increased drastically. \u201cThere was never that slow transition into it, and the country wasn\u2019t necessarily equipped for that on a government level, and that trickles down to the people. They haven\u2019t put proper systems to integrate systems and integrate people, as well as support the locals. It\u2019s caused a divide.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The result is that \u201cIreland has become so much more diverse, but I don\u2019t think people\u2019s idea of Irishness has fully caught up. When I was elected as Dublin Rose, it tickled a lot of people\u2019s feathers because it challenged their idea of what it means to be Irish. They don\u2019t picture someone who looks like me. Representation and acceptance have not moved at the same pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Processing the experience<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing that could compare to what our parents went through\u2019. Photograph: Mark Henderson\/Against Racism Ireland\/UNHCR Fair Play Cup<\/p>\n

The noise has died down now. Suad has taken a week off and tells me she is processing what happened, slowing down, staying off her devices and decompressing. But alongside the fatigue there is a determination that is at once steely and matter-of-fact. \u201cMy mam raised me not to let this stuff affect me,\u201d she says. From a young age her mother would tell her \u201cyou\u2019re going to get a lot of shit, but don\u2019t back down. At the same time it was hard. But I\u2019m at a healthy level of \u2018don\u2019t give power to these comments\u2019.\u201d What she has learned is to not \u201clet people\u2019s ideas of you limit you\u201d.<\/p>\n

She ends, mentioning her mum again, and what she owes her and her generation. She \u201cbuilt me up,\u201d Suad says. \u201cA lot of our families have come from war. They crossed oceans to be here. There\u2019s nothing that could compare to what our parents went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can she let the criticism, when compared to the trials that her parents endured, get to her? \u201cYou can\u2019t. Wallah, you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tap in<\/p>\n

How do you feel about the Rose of Tralee competition? What is the conversation missing? Share your thoughts by replying to this, or emailing us at thelongwave@theguardian.com<\/a> and we may include your response in a future issue.<\/p>\n

Cartoon | Carnival across bordersHow carnival connects \u2026 a cartoon depicting multiple Caribbean nations celebrating. Illustration: Sarah Akinterinwa<\/p>\n

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