Former Miss Ireland slams ‘classist’ online abuse
Former Miss Ireland and model Sarah Morrissey has hit back at online trolls after facing criticism over her accent
Morrissey, an accomplished model and content creator, has faced criticism over her accent, having been raised in the Liberties in Dublin, and revealed that she has been instructed to ‘speak properly’ during certain media appearances.
Throughout her modelling career, Sarah said that any negative feedback she encounters is invariably linked to the way she talks, and when creating content, she revealed that critics will claim they have to watch her content on mute because of her accent.
On social media, Morrissey said that her accent represents the resilience of the community she hails from, and praised her upbringing.
‘I never thought I deserved any less or any more than anybody else. And do you know why? Because another thing the inner city has is we have deadly mas,’ she said. ‘I had a ma who told me when I was growing up I could do anything I wanted to do.’
‘I couldn’t just be a model, I could be a supermodel. “Sure, of course, love, you can do that. Why can’t you?”‘
‘We have mas that think we can do no wrong, especially the sons, but that’s for another video.’
She continued: ‘We also have the best friends in the whole world. Mine, from junior infants, never once were jealous about what I did, how I looked, you know, the things I got, and vice versa. They big you up in everything you do.
‘We have the best community. I had neighbours who would be going to mass, and they’d pop in a magazine cover in the door that they saw me in. They never begrudged anything that you did. And they would always take you down a peg if you’re too big for your boots!’
She went on to say that no one would ever pass comment on a man’s accent, and that the criticism she faces ‘screams of misogyny.’
‘I don’t want a girl or anyone growing up that’s watching this that speaks the way that I do thinking that there’s something wrong with how we talk.
‘And I’m sure there’s so much psychology behind why people troll or send messages like this, but I’m convinced it’s because you didn’t have a ma who told you you were deadly, or friends to big you up and love you no matter what, or a community that was behind you, because you wouldn’t send messages like this.’
Morrissey was invited on by Newstalk to speak to Andrea Gilligan on her radio show about the ordeal the following day, with the host agreeing with the model, saying: ‘It’s classist, derogatory and just downright brutally ignorant.’
