Poor Holly Carpenter became the subject of some negativity last week, and now she's hitting back.

An article published in the Irish Independent on New Year's Day as part of Holly's regular column with the paper soon attracted attention online for all the wrong reasons:

Holly's line about tapas being great for "a bit of a crowd" was definitely the one line that stuck out for many:

Now though, the model has spoken out about the backlash, and says she knows the column wasn't up to her usual standard – but still feels the criticism was wholly unjustified.

"[L]ast week I wasn’t quite as organised as usual – it was New Year’s Eve after all – and I had to do a quick interview over the phone before it went to print, just to add some details," she wrote in a response published by the Independent today.

"In the end I understand why people might have felt that parts of my column just didn’t sound like me.

"However, I found it extremely frustrating and embarrassing getting so much hate over a few words in the social part of my column.

"I think people over-reacted and I can’t understand or relate to anyone who gets a thrill out of typing nasty words about someone else with the aim of upsetting them."

The 24-year-old also explained why she had refused to speak about the issue in the media or online over the last seven days.

"Part of the reason I didn’t partake in any interviews or reply to any mean tweets about this is because I fully understand that you have to take the good with the bad in this industry and I tried my best to just take it on the chin, learn from it and move on.

"A very big ‘thank you’ to everyone who tweeted me. I even made it on to some of my favourite satirical sites which featured what happened and gave me a laugh."

And in case you were wondering, Holly still maintains that tapas ARE "great for a crowd."