Sports pundit and broadcaster Eamon Dunphy said he was "shocked" when prominent No voter John Waters stormed out of a podcast recording about the referendum.

Waters appeared on Dunphy's The Stand podcast to debate the No side of the referendum yesterday. The pair got into an argument after Dunphy asked Waters about the definition of where life begins.

After tension flew back and forth for several minutes, the journalist and columnist decided he had enough and left the interview abruptly.

"You told me this would be a fair interview. It is not a fair interview. You're a bollocks. You're a f***ing bollocks, you can f*** off," Waters said before leaving.

Mr. Dunphy told Independent.ie that the conversation was "unpleasant".

"It was an unpleasant experience, but it happens. It's a very emotive topic for people at the moment," he said.

"I was surprised at what happened of course. It was unexpected, but I put it up so people could judge themselves if I was in the wrong or not."

Tension appeared between the two during the podcast when Waters said he believes life begins at conception. Dunphy put it to him that in this definition, the morning-after pill could be seen as abortion.

Mr. Waters then said: "This is typical of the kind of media attempt to turn this in to something else, to talk about hard cases, to make fudgy kind of philosophical arguments, which will delay and frustrate and confuse the people about something that is absolutely so clear... so clear.

"We are talking about whether or not we want to walk in to a polling booth, pick up a pencil, put on a black cap and condemn hundreds of thousands of children to death to the rest of your life every day, every day, every day. That's the question."

Almost 15 minutes into the interview, Waters told Dunphy that he was "fed up".

"We have 40 minutes to do an interview about this so can we talk about the issue or else I am going home. I am fed up of this," said Mr Waters.

Eamon Dunphy produced two podcasts for The Stand on the upcoming referendum, featuring John Waters on the No side and journalist Una Mullaly speaking for the Yes side.

At the end of the podcast with Mr. Waters, Dunphy tells him he is a No voter, but later said he was an undecided voter.

When asked if the podcasts had changed or altered his views on abortion, Dunphy said "not really".

"I am still undecided. I can see the valid arguments on both sides. I think a lot of people feel the same way," he told Independent.ie.

"I haven't talked to John Waters no, it's not on my immediate list of things to do, and I don't think I'm on his either."

Online Editors