PIC: News reporter in Australia sparks outrage with offensive tweet about Irish people living in Sydney

This seems a little harsh.

A reporter for 7 News in Australia caused controversy at the weekend after posting a comment on social media directed at Irish people living in Sydney. Australia’s biggest city was hit with a series of wild storms over the weekend, storms that claimed the lives of at least three people and battered coastal areas in New South Wales. Coogee, an area popular with Irish people living in Sydney, was badly affected. Devastating damage was caused to the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, which has been in existence for 110 years, while most of the sand was eroded on the main part of Coogee beach. Josh Massoud, a reporter for 7 News Sydney posted a picture of the damage on Coogee Beach on his Instagram and Twitter accounts on Sunday, along with a comment which read: ‘Coogee demolished over the weekend and for a pleasant change the Irish aren’t to blame.’ https://twitter.com/josh_massoud/status/739583791396716544

Coogee demolished over the weekend and for a pleasant change the Irish aren't to blame.

A photo posted by Josh Massoud (@joshm1977) on Jun 5, 2016 at 3:24pm PDT

The post also briefly appeared on the 7 News Sydney Twitter account before it was deleted. Whether Massound, who is followed by 15,500 people on Twitter, intended the comment as a joke is unclear, but it attracted criticism on both Twitter and Instagram after it was posted. https://twitter.com/gcooney/status/739732475513966593 https://twitter.com/stupy12/status/739689795694166017 https://twitter.com/lorsmurphy/status/739771236796891136 https://twitter.com/Dervla_Walsh/status/739770176040640512 https://twitter.com/fionab555/status/739735144555155457 https://twitter.com/YvonneRNy/status/739753622553165824 https://twitter.com/OrlaConway/status/739789011972030465 Cheers to Shane Doolan and Jade Ní Labhraí for sending this our way. Got a story for JOE? Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, send it to our WhatsApp number 087-4001102 or mail editorial@JOE.ie.