The director of the 'Normal People' TV series has said he welcomes controversy that has been created with the show.
The show is a TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s popular novel of the same name - which began airing this week on the BBC and online streaming platform Hulu.
Filming for the 12-part TV series took place here last year on Streedagh Beach, at Ben Bulben and in Tubbercurry in Co Sligo.
A new Tourism Ireland advert is also using filming of the TV series as part of a new campaign.
Director Lenny Abrahamson told Sean Moncrieff he welcomed controversy, after being dubbed 'a promoter of fornication' on RTÉ's LiveLine.
"[Fornication] is a word I hadn't heard for a while.
"Episodes one and two there's a lot of intimacy in them, but I'm a bit worried by the time we get to the later episodes there'll be like pitchforks and torches outside the house.
"It was a mad day because the whole thing had blown up in various places publicity-wise but this was almost, in a way, sort of the icing on the cake.
"A controversy on LiveLine is not to be sniffed at".
"It was sort of mad, but in a way it didn't feel like it had any teeth really - it feels like an echo from another time".
"There's some not absolutely insignificant minority of people who probably share views like that, or views which overlap with the views of the people who called.
"It'll never completely go away I'm sure, just like lots of other things".
"I think the fundamental idea there that is motivating the people, or the sort of picture of the world that's motivating the people who called in, is one that you could never get past - because the idea it's a doctrine that it is simply wrong to have sex outside of marriage.
"[It is] simply wrong and dirty in some way to enjoy sex except within very prescribed limits.
"It's such an odd view... also of the human body, of nakedness and all those things.
"But I don't think we could have depicted the sex in any more sort of tender way, really.
"And felt like we were also talking about the world - this is the way the world is."
He said a TV show was the right way to go, as the book is "very episodic" and "lends itself to this chaptered experience of watching it."
"And in some fundamental sense, it's very uneventful in the literal sense of that word - there's no massive, central drama.
"Its power is in the kind of truthful, intimate experience for the audience".
On any further backlash, he said: "I think I'm safe tonight... but I may have to have some searchlights installed for episodes five and six".
On the impact of the coronavirus on the film industry in general, Mr Abrahamson said it will take some time to get back on its feet.
"On the one hand there's going to be this massive demand because all production is ceased and new content is drying out.
"And there are so many stations and channels and streamers and everything."
"At the same time its quite hard to see, I don't think it's impossible, but it's hard to think of ways that we can start shooting again - even in the medium-term".
