Dublin actor Rory Cowan has sought legal advice following a series of "vicious" tweets.
The Mrs Brown's Boys star told RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke show that he was accused of being a child molester and a paedophile and was told to "leave the kids alone".
"I probably should have ignored them. I've received criticism before from people who don't like Mrs Brown's Boys and it was water off a duck's back, but this stuff was vicious and cruel and it was so quick when I replied to a tweet."
Mr Cowan said how he had participated in the Crumlin Children's Hospital Ward Walk just days before and some of the tweets referred to this and said "there were shades of Jimmy Savile".
“There were a fair few of them. They seemed to be feeding off each other,” he said. The actor said he had contacted his solicitor.
‘Vile stuff’
“I can’t have this happening. All of this because of one response I gave to a tweet.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. It was like a kick in the stomach. It’s not like a difference of opinion. It was vile stuff.
"My solicitor is dealing with it all now. We have to find them before we can go to the gardaí. We don't know if they are in Ireland, the UK, Northern Ireland. They could be anywhere. There's no point going to the gardaí until we know where these people are. We have to get as much information as possible."
Mr Cowan said he will not be engaging with people on Twitter as frequently as he did previously. “I will certainly think very carefully about responding or what I have to say for myself. They’ve probably done me a favour in a way.
“It is unfortunate that there are people out there who have accused me of doing the vilest things with no basis.”