It’s known as the ‘Year of the Selfie’ but 2014 isn’t just famous for that however, and according to new statistics released from Twitter, we can see exactly what got Ireland talking this year.
Brian O’Driscoll topped the tweets for Irish sporting fans earlier this year, as Ireland defeated France to win the Six Nations in a historic game that also saw Brian hang up his Irish rugby boots. Hundreds of thousands took to Twitter to bid farewell to the star and BOD added to the momentous occasion when he tweeted a picture of his number 13 jersey and boots being hung up for the last time. The picture got almost 40,000 retweets.
In second place came Graham Norton, with Alan Shatter coming in third for the people who trended in Ireland most often. Also in the top ten people talked about by Irish Twitter users included UFC fighter Conor McGregor, Donal Walsh, the Kerry teenager who lost his battle with cancer, and Eamon Dunphy.
In terms of TV, Vincent Brown and Ryan Tubridy earned a number of tweets each week as too did The X Factor, the Great British Bake Off and Match of the Day. Hit homegrown show Love/Hate was took the main slice of the action with the episode that saw Siobhan shoving Pauley over the balcony one of the most talked-about episodes and the top tweeted of the year in Ireland.
Ellen DeGeneres became the selfie queen with her Oscar selfie that was retweeted over three million times, while the word selfie was used 92 million times on Twitter since January – 500% more than last year. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy’s selfie after the Ryder Cup became one of the most popular of the year.
The All-Ireland football semi-final saw thousands of Mayo fans take to Twitter in annoyance when their side were beaten by Kerry – making it the second most tweeted moment of 2014. Garth Brooks was also a trending topic in Ireland along with Budget 2015 and the Local Elections. Irish Water and Alan Shatter’s resignation were also in the top ten.
Other news that grabbed our attention over the year included Robin Williams’ suicide, Oscar Pistorius’ trial, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight and the Scottish Independence referendum.
The World Cup also took centre stage over the summer.
