As the controversy surrounding George Hook continues to intensify, Pat Kenny has appeared to defend his colleague, by insisting the rugby pundit is genuinely contrite.

"I listened to his apology and he meant it, he is genuinely contrite. He is devastated by this. He realises what he said didn't come out right and accepts that some people were hurt," Kenny reasoned.

While insisting he wasn't defending the comments made by Hook, Pat argued that they were not a fair reflection of the radio host.

"The comments are not reflective of him. He is a decent man with children and was musing over a topic," Pat argued.

"He has entertained people for 13 years and it would be sad that people would take his mis-speaking on the radio as the real representation of George the man."

Earlier this week, while appearing on The Hard Shoulder with Ivan Yates, Irish singer, Mary Coughlan, protested against Yates' colleague by walking out of the interview.

The folk singer was being interviewed by Ivan about her upcoming tour when she chose to cut the interview short in response to Hook's recent remarks about rape.

The 61-year-old singer told Ivan that her decision to suspend the interview was nothing personal, but a response to his Newstalk colleague's controversial comments.

Commenting on her decision to terminate her appearance on the show, Mary told The Independent insisted the veteran broadcaster should be dismissed by the station.

"This isn’t the first time Hook has made comments such as these. The comments have absolutely no respect for the victims of abuse in this country."

"His comments were completely disparaging and there are even some comments in his book which I find similar,” she said. "He should be fired for God’s sake."

Yesterday it was reported that up to 20 members of Newstalk staff have drafted a letter of protest and are calling for him to be taken off air, though it's believed it was not formally handed to management.