Irish comic Oliver Callan has announced he's gay.

The 30-year-old Callan appeared on RTE's Saturday Night Show to discuss charges he was homophobic, which arose from a sketch he performed last March on the same show.

He told host Brendan O'Connor: “Let's get one thing straight, I'm not homophobic, I'm gay.”

During his previous appearance on the show, Callan had done an over-the-top impersonation of Senator Davis Norris, who was running for president at the time and is openly gay. Under the guise of a campy Norris, Callan suggested that footballer Paul Galvin, who is pursuing a fashion career, was gay.

“The thing I'm most looking forward to [as president] is the All-Ireland finals, when I stand erect! My stylist Paul Galvin will be there – Paul Galvin Klein as you know – but we don't know what side of the stitch he's hurling from do we?” Callan screamed. “But you see he won't join me on the canvass. He's refusing to join me on the canvass because he says he prefers silk or skinny denim – skinny denim is a nightmare for erections. But anyway, people wonder why he's so good at fashion. Pretty clear to me, it's all the years he spent in the closet.”

Galvin complained to the network, describing it as “excruciating” to watch Callan's performance.

“Paul Galvin claims he felt it was excruciatingly difficult to watch me poke fun at his fashion sense,” Callan said on this week's show. “Straight men should not be insulted to be sent up like a gay.”

He added that his sexual orientation wasn't a big deal: “I'm not singing I'm gay and proud. I'm saying I'm gay and I don't give a shit and neither should anyone else.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)