Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council says it has cancelled a Drag Story Time event because of significant safety concerns.
The event, where drag queens read stories to children, was due to be held at Deansgrange library as part of Dublin Pride in June.
However, it was cancelled at the weekend after a large number of homophobic comments were directed at the organisers online.
Both Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the group involved agreed it wouldn't be safe to hold the event.
However, in a statement DLR indicated that the reason was it was not age appropriate or family-friendly.
It said:
"All events in dlr Libraries for children and young people are undertaken in compliance with dlr's Child Safeguarding policy and those running such events are required to be Garda vetted".
Glitter Hole, the group behind Drag Story Time, said:
"The implication here is that the content of our drag shows for adults has deemed us inappropriate children’s storytellers".
They raised concern that the cancellation notice placed the blame on them, and didn't mention "the safety concerns for the performers or audience".
It seems like the most archaic homophobia to me that DLR have labelled the queer people the risk in this scenario. The irony is that we were booked for Pride and yet DLR have responded to the hate speech we have received by deciding we are not age appropriate performers 5/6
— Glitter HOLE (@GlitterHoleDub) April 15, 2019
Glitter Hole complained that DLR responded "to the hate speech we have received by deciding we are not age appropriate performers".
The group, which has performed drag stories before, said it believed in the importance of the event and are determined to continue presenting it.
DLR has since clarified its cancellation notice, stating that it was "due to our significant concern at the high level of degrading, inappropriate comments on social media about the performers and library staff".
In an updated statement, it said that "dlr Libraries object to homophobia in all its forms".
"Health and Safety is always at the forefront of our concerns. We would like to reassure the public that this event is age-appropriate and family-friendly", it said.
