I KNEW as soon as I saw the video. I held my breath opening the comments.

Irish country pop star and “gorgeous genius” CMAT (Ciara Mary Alice Thompson) was performing at Radio One’s Big Weekend.

Decked out in baby blue with her red hair, she looked like a proper rock star.

She happens to be a rock star who worked in the Super Valu in Finglas, Dublin before she was famous. It’s one of the reasons I love her.

An ordinary girl, from an ordinary family, who won an Ivor Novello award, and who writes chart-topping songs that reference Marian Keyes.

She’s unapologetically Irish and unapologetically herself. So naturally, very small men really dislike her.

Those videos from One Big Weekend have hundreds of comments from miserable people about her weight.

CMAT, to the absolute horror of total strangers online, is not thin.

It is important to remember that in order to be respected in society, one must be thin. Women doubly so.

Last week, CMAT posted that despite deleting social media from her phone because of the abuse she receives, she continues to hear about it.

“It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body,” she wrote.

“I simply have a........

© The Irish News