Imelda May revealed she has had to go to the police due to the level of nasty messages she receives daily following her poem You Don’t Get To Be Racist And Irish.
She released her debut poetry EP Slip of the Tongue last year, which tackled various issues including racism.
The Dubliner, who is currently based in the UK, revealed she has since been hit with an onslaught of “scary” backlash on social media, which has escalated so much she had to report it to the police.
However, she says, many of her “nasty” critics have never even read her work.
Imelda told RTE Guide: “Since I wrote You Don’t Get to be Racist and Irish, I’ve had negativity daily for 10 months.
“But what I’ve realised is that the people who give me that anger and hatred, seem to do that all day, to everybody, and I’d hate to live that life.
“I’ve also noticed that most of them haven’t even read my poem, at all.
“They’re just looking for someone to hate.
“Some of them have been really nasty and you get scared with the things some of them say, it can get really bad and you’re having to report it to the police, so that can rattle me.
“But then other days I just think that they’re louder than the lovers. When I need the support, the lovers flow in.”
As she releases her sixth studio album, 11 Past the Hour, Imelda recently performed her new single, Made to Love, on the Graham Norton Show.
But after a year in lockdown and off the stage, she admitted she was shaking with nerves.
Imelda said: “I was really nervous. I think the most ever that my manager has seen me. I was shaking. It was a mixture of excitement and adrenaline.
“It was also a bit of sensory overload because I’ve been at home so long and all of a sudden you’re in a studio with lights flashing and camera whizzing up and down and people.
“Not to mention, I was in heels and not an elasticated waistband.”
In the meantime, the singer revealed she is longing to get home to see her parents, saying: “I just want to hug my mum and dad.
“I want my daughter to play freely with her pals, I don’t care about holidays or any of that stuff.
“And we’ll do that again... for sure.”
