"Is it just that maybe we’re not as open-minded as society as we claim to be?"

Irish Independent journalist Fionnán Sheahan appeared on Virgin Media's The Tonight Show with ashes on his forehead after attending an Ash Wednesday service.

Sheahan received a lot of comments online after appearing on the show.

In response, he said on Newstalk Breakfast: "My issue isn’t so much with the reaction, because that’s just the moron hurlers on the ditch on social media.

"What I was surprised by was the sane and sensible people saying, ‘Oh, but you should expect to be slagged off in a situation like that.

"To which I would say, ‘Well, why? So, somebody who now professes to be Catholic or identifies as such, should now be subject to opprobrium?"

Sheahan added that he is not a devout Catholic but that he likes to get his ashes in order to maintain family tradition.

He said: "In days gone by, the fellow reading the news used to have the ashes. The Minister of Finance once delivered a budget [with ashes on his forehead]. In my case, it’s not a profound expression of a faith; it’s actually a personal thing. It’s carrying on a tradition from my late father, and it’s how I remember him."

He went on: "I went down the rabbit hole and was looking at some of the comments and it was people who look back to their other posts and go, ‘Okay, you’re claiming to be kind of a person of liberal and open-minded thought – but when it comes to this, you become a bigot. So, why is that?

"I don’t know, is it potentially a Catholic thing? Or is it just that maybe we’re not as open-minded as society as we claim to be?"