JK Rowling has once again demonstrated her considerable talent for shutting down vitriolic Twitter trolls, this time by taking on the unrelenting Westboro Baptist Church.

The anti-gay group famous for brandishing hate-filled signs bearing slogans such as ‘God hates fags’ at protests responded predictably to Ireland’s vote for marriage equality by threatening to picket the fictional wedding of Harry Potter character Dumbledore and the Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf.

The author had joked about a union between the two in tweets celebrating the “extraordinary and wonderful” referendum result in Ireland, where almost 62 per cent of people voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.

Her joke was quickly pounced on by social media accounts affiliated with the Westboro Baptist Church, who had been tweeting homophobic messages “reminding” Ireland of its slogan. The Kansas-based church has picketed Ground Zero, the funeral of soldiers and celebrities such as Michael Jackson in the past and threatened to picket Robin Williams’ funeral after saying the actor is “going to hell” and was “hated by God”.

Never one to ignore hate-speech circulating on social media, Rowling responded excellently:

When challenged by a Twitter user for giving the Church "counter-productive" attention, Rowling insisted it is important to confront hate speech in all forms.