Financial adviser Eddie Hobbs has told people to "get over" a tweet he posted about Irish women "wondering who the father is" at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.

The social media post, which sparked a backlash on Twitter and was labelled as "misogynistic", has since been deleted.

The tweet read: "#Pope Garden of Remembrance, so called because of its proximity to the Rotunda Maternity Hospital and all the generations of Irish women who walked around it...wondering who the feck the father is."

It was posted on Saturday morning, just over 24 hours before a protest would take place at the Garden of Remembrance in solidarity with victims of clerical child sex abuse. Speaking to the Irish Independent yesterday, the financial adviser described the response to the tweet as "a storm in a tea-cup" and said people should "get a grip" about it.

"Firstly, it was humour and not fact. I don't want to add any more to what I've already said, it's not my belief, it's humour.

"People would want to get a grip, I'm not... anti-lone parent. I'm a social liberal person," he said.

One of those to criticise Mr Hobbs was Independent Dublin City councillor Mannix Flynn, who said it was "inappropriate" at any time and an "insult" to women.

"To put in such a repugnant and disgusting comment and directly in line with the kind of attitude the Church had and the hurt caused...It's inappropriate at any time," he said.

Responding to the comments, Mr Hobbs said that he did not know who Mr Flynn was and that people "hop onto bandwagons".

Irish Independent