Irish Independent journalist Ian O'Doherty caused quite a stir over the weekend when he appeared on Newstalk on Sunday morning.
As he tends to do quite pointedly, O'Doherty was offering his opinion on the ever controversial topic of wearing of poppies in football in the build up to Remembrance Sunday.
O'Doherty began his take on the situation by stating that poppies represented the "increased mawkishness of British society" before adding that he felt football in England was becoming altogether too sensitive, with minutes silences and black armbands being used far too frequently.
It seems you cannot go to a match in England now without there being a minute’s silence for the grandson of the tea lady who used to work in the stadium and now she’s feeling a bit poorly.
The ever expressive columnist than focused his attention on Liverpool in particular.
I mean the joke is on Liverpool because they seem to go through so many commemorations of disasters and deaths that they should have just had a black armband just as part of their regulation kit.
The interview prompted a fierce backlash from Liverpool fans who branded the journalist a "moron", "ignorant" and "disgusting".
O'Doherty answered his critics today like only he can with a rather forthright column in the Independent and he didn't exactly hold back, sticking to his guns over the "British mawkishness" and re-iterating his point that football silences have been taken way too far.
While discussing the mawkish dumbing down of society on Shane Coleman’s show on Newstalk on Sunday, I made reference to the fact that it’s now a rarity to see a football match start without a minute’s silence for something.
Then, heresy of heresies, I referred back to the old joke about Liverpool including a permanent black armband on their official shirts.
He then went one step further saying that if he was really arsed about insulting Liverpool fans then he'd have happily done so. Adding that "normal people" wouldn't respond in the way Liverpool fans did and that as a collective unit they were generally a humourless and unintelligent group of people.
A minor, throwaway remark used to illustrate a point then became a case of me apparently declaring war on Liverpudlians when it was anything but - trust me, if I had set out to deliberately offend Scousers, I would have gone a lot further.
I've always said that individuals are smart, but the more people you add into the mix, the dumber the dynamic becomes and so you see people who would normally shrug their shoulders at some perceived slight become avenging angels of fury and disproportionate anger.
Liverpool fans have a widely established reputation for being a humourless lot (while at the same time saying they’ve the best sense of humour of any group of fans), but this was just the latest drizzle of stupidity in what has become a downpour.
Strong stuff from O'Doherty who's clearly adamant about sticking to his guns on the issue, not that we would have expected any less from him.
