Sinead O’Connor calls for Gemma O'Doherty and John Waters arrests over 'racial discrimination'

The star who goes by the Muslim name Shuhada Sadaqat launched the petition on the change.org website where people can add their names if they agree with it.

The singer was previously in a relationship with ex-Irish Times columnist John Waters.

So far this morning a total of 334 people have signed with a prompt on the site to get that number to 500.

In the petition Sinead says Mr Waters and Ms O’Doherty “have been allowed to wander this country spouting their sickening racial and religious abuse without legal consequence for too long.

“In light of their recent vile remarks about Leo Varadkar, which are an insult to all immigrants to Ireland, we call for the Irish State to apply the laws of the land and immediately arrest them both for incitement to racial discrimination and for breach of our anti-discrimination laws.”

This is a reference to a video clip that has been widely shared on social media of both Waters and Doherty questioning Mr Varadkar’s Irishness, with Mr Waters saying he should not be here.

Ms O'Doherty says he should be working in an Indian restaurant.

In the clip, Mr Waters says: “So Varadkar. He is not Irish.

"He is an Indian. He has no love for Ireland whatsoever. He shouldn't be here as a..he should be here, maybe working on the buses or something but he shouldn't be here in any..”

He is interrupted by Ms O’Doherty who adds: “In an Indian restaurant John, that’s the only place he should be working.”

In one tweet by ‘Aciquestion’ which has a ‘no hate’ slogan, that video is posted with the comment: “John Waters declares that Leo Varadkar, who was born and raised in Ireland, is "not Irish" while Gemma O'Doherty states that he should be working in an "Indian restaurant".

"We don't know if John or Gemma are racists but those comments, taken in isolation, sound racist to us," they tweeted.

In one tweet by ‘Aciquestion’ which has a ‘no hate’ slogan, that video is posted with the comment: “John Waters declares that Leo Varadkar, who was born and raised in Ireland, is "not Irish" while Gemma O'Doherty states that he should be working in an "Indian restaurant".

"We don't know if John or Gemma are racists but those comments, taken in isolation, sound racist to us," they tweeted.