Arlene Foster and Tommy Tiernan

During his appearance on the 1.30pm Mark Patterson show today - days ahead of his 'Under the Influence' gigs in the Millenium Forum from April 27-29 - he told of his "interest" in DUP leader Arlene Foster.

During his interview he said: "If she wasn't in politics I can see her working single handedly a tiny little farm in south Fermanagh driving cattle up some country lane".

In a play on words and seemingly imitating Mrs Foster he added: "Go on you pups, you feni** ba****ds ye, go up you fen***...

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"Friesian Arlene, they are called Friesian Arlene.

"I will call them what I want."

Immediately after the interview with the comedian, Mr Patterson distanced him from what had been said.

"If anyone was offended by that I do humbly apologise but Tommy is I suppose that kind of talent in terms of what he does and the people who pay to see him do it," he said.

However Mr Campbell said: "In terms of humour and satire, I am fairly well known to be in favour of that as I engage in it quite a bit myself, so I would not ridicule someone else for using it. But the nature of some of the language appears to be excessive.

"His humour can be quite lively if it is delivered and taken in the spirit it is intended it to be, but some of that stuff (about Arlene Foster) appears to be, in terms if the language used anyway, almost deliberately provocative to try to engender some sort of outrage."

Mr Campbell added: "I hope people won't rise to it in terms of him wanting a massive headline to try and sell more tickets.

"Hopefully people will have more sense and wiser counsel will prevail."