A BLOGGER FOR the Irish Times-owned ireland.com website was sacked because her blog was not popular enough – and then replaced with another writer using the same nom de plume.

A writer using the pseudonym ‘Kitten O’Shea’ wrote a regular blog about being a singleton in her 30s for the site, which formerly housed the Irish Times’ own content before being rebranded in late 2008.

The blogger was told her blog was not receiving enough hits, despite being featured on the ireland.com homepage, and was given notice that her employment would be terminated.

O’Shea thus wrote a farewell post on the blog saying that she was soon to be laid off – but was shocked when another writer adopted the pseudonym and continued writing on the blog shortly afterward.

Regular readers who spotted the change in style described the website’s u-turn as “disgusting” while another described the website as “a joke”.

The original Kitten, who retains the name on her Twitter account, has confirmed that her successor was a ‘fake’.

Her blog was one of a dozen on the site, but the blog – irrespective of its writer – has since been pulled.

A spokesperson for ireland.com told the Sunday Tribune that the whole affair was “a storm in a teacup [...] the readership of the blog wasn’t high enough either.”

Visitors following links to the Dating Blog are now redirected to the homepage for the remaining eleven blogs, where the website is now currently advertising for new bloggers.