Fermoy Tidy Towns is to write to The Graham Norton Show after a guest labelled the town a ‘horrible, horrible place’.

Sitting in the ‘Big Red Chair,’ the audience member told Graham she had lived in the Cork town for 20 years before labelling it ‘horrible’ and adding ‘I hate it’.

The clip has sparked outrage in the town, with locals insisting the comments were “unfair”.

“Ah that’s a bit far now,” said one local. “Especially on UK TV like.

“I’ve never seen anything wrong with this town – it is like defamation of a town basically.”

“It’s not completely accurate,” said another.

“It is a nice town; they won some Tidy Towns thing before so you know, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Bridge over River Blackwater at Fermoy Co Cork. Image: Michael Walsh / Alamy

On The Pat Kenny Show, Fine Gael Cllr and Tidy Town Chairperson Noel McCarthy said locals were “very upset, as you can imagine”.

“It was one woman giving her opinion, but on a show that has big viewers and painting the town of Fermoy completely in the wrong,” he said.

“We are very proud of our town in Fermoy. We have a good town; it’s a great town to live in, to work in, to raise a family and great businesses, great sporting facilities and school facilities.

“We're so proud of our town and to be mentioned like that as ‘a horrible, horrible town,’ it just upsets us.

“It’s upset me because I'm very proud of it and a lot of people in the town have been outraged and horrified by her comments."

Busy street in Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland

He said people who knew the woman personally are “all surprised she would make that comment”.

“You know, it's hard to believe and we'd like to put it straight,” he said.

“We're going to write to The Graham Norton Show to ask could they mention it, that we're upset over it.

“Maybe we’ll invite Graham as well when he comes back to his beloved West Cork, that he might visit us in Fermoy so we can show him around and to see what we have because we are proud, we really are, the people of Fermoy and very nice and there's a great welcome in Fermoy.”

“It is a lovely town,” he continued.

“I love living here like all the people that live here. We're very proud of it. Really proud of it.”