COLUMNIST JOHN WATERS is no longer writing for the Irish Times.

A spokesperson at the editor’s office said Waters had “decided to stop contributing columns”.

Waters had written a regular column in the newspaper each Friday for more than two decades, but his articles had not appeared since late January. In its place, the Irish Times had run columns by broadcaster Olivia O’Leary and journalist Kathy Sheridan.

The replacement columns had featured a sentence at the end of each piece saying that John Waters was on leave but that sentence did not run beneath today’s column.

Waters had been a regular freelance columnist at the Irish Times since 1991, but was not on staff. He is also a former media correspondent at the newspaper.

“The editor does wish him well in his future endeavours and recognises his fine contribution to journalism,” the spokesperson for Irish Times editor Kevin O’Sullivan told TheJournal.ie.

Waters is believed to have been unhappy at the Irish Times in the wake of the homophobia debate which ignited after Rory O’Neill – aka Panti – appeared on RTE One’s The Saturday Night Show and was asked to name commentators who he believed were homophobic.

Waters was one of several people named by O’Neill, and who later received a financial settlement from RTE over the comments.

The Phoenix magazine reported last month that Waters also sent legal letters to the Irish Times over a column by journalist Una Mullally about the homophobia debate, demanding a retraction and an apology from his employer.

Waters is also a columnist for the Irish Mail on Sunday.

A call to John Waters was not immediately returned.