A SKY News presenter has come in for criticism over remarks he made about his controversial TV interview with Simon Coveney saying "you Irish need to get over yourselves".
Following criticism of his interview with the Foreign Affairs Minister and tánaiste on Friday, Adam Boulton took aim at the Irish on Twitter.
In a post made at 11.37pm on Saturday he said: "Bored now. Some of you Irish need to get over yourselves. Interviewing is about challenging the interviewee not respecting."
The tweet provoked an angry response from many, including Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Barry McElduff who wrote: "You Irish' suggests supremacist & racist outlook".
The Economist's international editor Helen Joyce joked: "We Paddies promise to remember our place from now on".
Adding further fuel to the fire, the 58-year-old, writing in his Sunday Times column yesterday, said the DUP had "played its joker early" exploiting the "inexperience" of the Dublin parliament.
The Sky News presenter interviewed the tánaiste on Friday following the agreement struck between the UK and EU to move on to next stage of Brexit talks.
During the discussion the presenter asked Mr Coveney if he thought the "kerfuffle" over the Brexit negotiations was "necessary".
He also questioned Mr Coveney on whether he felt "slightly guilty that perhaps the Irish government over-briefed what had been achieved (on Monday) as a victory over the British for the European Union?"
Mr Boulton said that the Irish government had "provoked" the DUP and added that had the Irish government been a "bit more straightforward" about an agreement at the beginning there would not been "four days of turmoil".
In response to the comments Mr Coveney dismissed any notion that the Irish government had looked for or claimed any victory . He stressed that the government needed these reassurances, otherwise it would have been like "a jump in the dark."
"The Irish government’s response has always been that, for us, that’s like a jump into the dark. We don’t know where we’re going to land, we don’t know whether we’re going to have unintended consequences and we need basic reassurance that actually certain things will not happen under any circumstances when we move onto phase two," he said.
