US website Forbes has taken down an article about Limerick in which they used the phrase "stab-city" in the headline.
The story about Irish tech billionaires Patrick and John Collison was described as "defamatory and ill advised" as local politicians as well as Limerick natives slammed the article on social media.
In the first line the article labelled the city as the "murder capital of Europe", despite this not being the case.
Patrick O'Donovan, TD for Limerick County, said: "As a representative of the Government here in Limerick, I am calling on Forbes and Stephen McBride to immediately apologise to the people of Limerick for the insult and hurt caused by the article published.
"I am calling on them to come to Limerick where I will gladly set the record straight in respect of what our county and city has to offer as opposed to what your work of fiction depicts. Please let me know when suits to visit."
Limerick Mayor Michael Collins added: "Glad to see Forbes had the foresight to remove their defamatory and ill advised article about our fantastic #Limerick this evening. We'll done to all proud Limerick people for standing up against gutter journalism."
Minister Michael McGrath added: "Its characterisation of Limerick could not be more wrong and is blind to the damage such a depiction can do. Limerick is a city on the march. A fabulous city with great people."
Patrick Collision, whom the article was written about, said: "Not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of 'overcoming' anything is crazy. We are who we are *because* we grew up where we did."
The article was eventually removed just a number of hours after publication.
Patrick and John Collison, founder of online payments company Stripe, last month revealed it is to create at least 1,000 new jobs here over the next five years.
