The Blessed Madonna has called out Róisín Murphy after she claimed that censorship had a “chokehold” on the arts in a controversial speech given to Parliament recently.

The Irish singer first came under fire for her views towards the trans community in 2023 when she posted a comment on Facebook using her personal profile, criticising the use of puberty blockers – medicines used to delay the changes of puberty for transgender and gender-diverse youth.

More recently, Murphy gave a speech at a launch event for the latest report by Freedom In The Arts, speaking in front of Parliament about “censorship” in the arts.

“The creative soul of this country […] has always thrived on discomfort, on the freedom to be wrong, to offend, to pivot and to surprise ourselves,” she said, per The Telegraph . “Without that freedom, we don’t get better art, we simply put artists into a chokehold and suffocate the life out of our culture.

“We need free, equal and open debate.…