Adam Dufty

This year’s Dublin Rose of Tralee has caused a fair bit of controversy. I’ve seen some genuinely nasty comments and memes doing the rounds focused on the winner’s skin colour. Which feels completely beside the point to me. Suad Mooge has Somalian heritage - but was born and raised in Ireland. And may well be an Irish dancing, bodhran playing, fluent Irish speaker for all I know. The part that jars for me is something different. The Rose of Tralee is presented as a celebration of Irish culture and identity. And while Mooge is perfectly entitled to dress according to her religious beliefs, Irish women don’t typically cover their hair - quite the opposite, really. That doesn’t make her “less Irish”. But I do think it raises an interesting question about where cultural representation ends and religious identity begins.

Would love to know how to be normal about me emotions. I feel like being autistic & being tolerable, you’ve to do a lot of suppressing. It’s really shite being a defective human & I know I’m incompatible with a lot of people so I stay away from them but they don’t leave me alone.

My daughter went online to do some exam revision. Are there no Irish people left in Ireland? The constant over representation of Africans/Indians in Irish advertising is off the scale.

Israeli settlers blocked children in Masafer Yatta from playing football on their village field threatened with demolition. The settlers sat before them chanting in Hebrew to intimidate them, while the children watched helplessly. How much longer will this continue?

Today, more than 2,500 Palestinians ran in Gaza as part of the 10th Palestine International Marathon sponsored by Egypt and held simultaneously in Bethlehem and the Strip for the first time.

Congratulations to Suad Mooge, the Dublin Rose 2026. Suad is a beautiful Irish born Somali raised in Ireland with a gorgeous personality. Hilarious that the worst of creatures are having sleepless nights over her selection. More than 4.2k negative posts about her online. Recently, she responded to her critics with humour.

Hijab’s are Catholic, Muslims took it from us.