The comments were reported in the Irish and international media;[6][7] however, both Tyaransen and Hot Press editor Niall Stokes, as well as Tiernan himself, defended them as being taken out of context.

[9][10] Past writers for Hot Press have included ninth President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins,[11] the authors of BAFTA award-winning Father Ted, Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, Sunday Times television reviewer Liam Fay, author and Daily Telegraph columnist Neil McCormick, Bill Graham, The Sunday Business Post US correspondent Niall Stanage, Irish Examiner soccer correspondent Liam Mackey, author Damian Corless, the former The Irish Times columnist John Waters and film critic Tara Brady, food writer John McKenna, Sunday Independent journalist Declan Lynch and The Guardian football writer, Football Weekly regular Barry Glendenning, Daily Mail writer Jason O'Toole and Olaf Tyaransen[citation needed].

[citation needed] It was critical of the then Fianna Fáil government, pro-Seanad reform and was opposed to the June 2007 decision of the Irish Film Censor's Office to ban the videogame Manhunt 2[15] This is the first time a video game has been refused certification by the IFCO.

[16] The magazine has interviewed several politicians, including Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, DUP's Ian Paisley Jr. MLA, leader of the Green Party, John Gormley and Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen.

There wasn't a whole lot in it really – (it was like) a Sweet Afton, as a 10-year-old, under a railway bridge on a rainy day, in small town Ireland in the late '60s.

In June 2007, DUP's Ian Paisley Jr. MLA caused uproar in an interview with Jason O'Toole by publicly denouncing acts associated with homosexuality.