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The band's message disowning Ian Banham has been viewed 1.5 million times on Twitter at time of writing, and sparked about 2,700 replies.

The vast bulk of these appear to be critical of Wild Youth, with a sample of the first 100 replies revealing just two tweets supporting the band and 98 criticising them.

Among those adding their voice to the criticism of the Irish Eurovision group was one of history’s best-selling authors, JK Rowling, who mocked the band for their "so-called kindness and inclusivity" after pillorying Mr Banham.

UNRAVELLING THE CONTROVERSY

The story began on Tuesday morning when a Twitter account called ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord, 6,500 followers) posted up some screenshots of comments made by Mr Banham, along with a “trigger warning” about “transphobia”.

Mr Banham is a dance choreographer who has worked with Westlife, Kylie Minogue, and Nathan Carter in the past.

ESC Discord said that it wanted to draw people’s attention to Mr Banham's tweets because they "severely contradict the values of the Eurovision Song Contest".

The first one they highlighted depicted a BBC news story titled 'Woman jailed after stabbing and tying up victim', which related to the sentencing of a convicted rapist who has now also been found guilty of GBH and robbery.

The offender was born male but now “self-identifies” as a woman named Zara Jade (although he will reportedly be sent to a male, not female, prison).

Underneath this BBC story on Twitter, Mr Banham criticised the reporting of the case, saying: "It's a MAN! This clown world is ridiculous..."

In another tweet, Mr Banham said that Dylan Mulvaney "is not a woman" (Mulvaney is a social media celebrity who began describing themselves as female last year; Mulvaney has not had gender surgery and remains anatomically male, saying "women can have bulges and that's okay").

The third tweet ESC Discord complained of consisted of Mr Banham mocking a video of a "non-binary woman who identifies as a hawk". Mr Banham had said: "It's for sure a CULT!" along with a picture of a clown face.

ESC Discord also pointed to two other tweets from Mr Banham, criticising the surge of votes for Ukraine in the 2022 contest on the basis that the event is a “song contest” not a political matter.

Three hours later, Wild Youth released this statement on their Twitter page (@bandwildyouth, 9,000 followers): "Wild Youth is a band that stands for unity and kindness.

"Our song represents our beliefs as a band.

"We have cut all ties with Ian Banham and will not have him on or near our team or Eurovison journey.

"We are so sorry for anyone offended by his comments. ❤️

"And just to note we were with @michaelkealy1 [executive producer of entertainment at RTE] and both himself and @RTE were as horrified as we were."

‘BAND HAS CUT TIES WITH REALITY’

The News Letter looked at 100 replies as they appeared immediately underneath the band's tweet.

Of those, two were supportive of the band's position, and the rest were critical of the band.

The supportive tweets were from Virginia Rose (@Autorin_VR, 99 followers) who said "Cool! Don't give transphobes and transhaters any space to spread their fascist ideology" and EMPRESS (@swtpussypsycho, 730 followers) who said "thank u for this, means the absolute world”.

Below are a small handful of typical comments criticising the band:

6th Gen Floridian (@6thGenFloGrown, 1,200 followers): "'Stands for unity and kindness', but not reality. Or victims."

Kim Goldberg (@KimPigSquash, 11,800 followers): "The women of the world would like a little less of your 'kindness' please."

Ian C (@ian_cundy, 3,600 followers): "I’d say your journey just ended."

The Oracle (@BlakeBlakebabee, 5,000 followers): "You’ve also seem to have cut ties with reality. Why are you defending a male rapist?"

Sadbh (@Sadbh73286087, 3,000 followers): "This is contemptible - Ian Banham accurately describes a thug who tied up & stabbed a woman as male & you ditch him to save your own skins. You don't stand for kindness and unity - you stand for betrayal of your friends..."

Admiral Invalidator (@Artofhunger75, 6,800): "You are on the side of a mentally unwell man who tortured and stabbed a woman. This is virtue signaling? What vulnerable community are you protecting? Women stabbers?"

Meanwhile Harry Potter author JK Rowling (@jk_rowling, 14 million followers) wrote: "For those confused as to why Ian Banham was fired and publicly lambasted by @bandwildyouth , here’s one of his ‘horrifying’ tweets.

"His crime is standing against the insanity of pretending knife-wielding rapists are women if they say they are.

"The re-traumatisation of female rape survivors, including this man’s victims, on seeing him called a woman by the press counts for nothing, naturally."

She also hit out at the "so-called kindness and inclusivity of @bandwildyouth" as being "preening" and "self-satisfied", and added the hashtag #IStandWithIanBanham.