A BIT OF “horseplay” in the Dáil, an irascible TV presenter, tragic deaths and memories of primary school: these are among the main obsessions of the Irish Twitter community in 2013.

The topics which got Irish users going on the social media platform this year range from sporting events to politics to TV and nostalgia for Irish slang.

Big note of context here: Twitter Ireland say that they have ranked the following top tens to reflect what trended most often, rather than the volume of tweets about a particular topic. So you might say these are the things that we most consistently got worked up about.

(Although it’s surprising that the #GIBO (Great Irish Bake Off) got into the TV top ten, and #lovehate didn’t, right?)

Irish news

Image: Photocall Ireland archive

1. Roma
2. #seanref
3. #budget2014
4. #oirsocm (#oirscom was also used but not to the same extent)
5. Seamus Heaney
6. #lapgate
7. #anglotapes
8. Marie Fleming
9. #Magdalene
10. Savita

Irish people

1. BOD
2. Roy Keane
3. Seamus Heaney
4. Graham Norton
5. Pat Kenny
6. Sean O’Rourke
7. Michael Collins
8. Marie Fleming
9. Ivan Yates
10. Joe Brolly

TV

Image: Great Irish Bake Off/TV3

1. vinb
2. Late Late
3. X Factor
4. GIBO
5. #theapprentice
6. rtept
7. #rtethevoice
8. MOTD
9. eurovision
10. BBUK

Sports

1. #GAA
2. #RAW
3. #MUFC
4. #LFC
5. #WWE
6. #6nations
7. #TheOpen
8. #COYBIG
9. #masters

Sportspeople

Image: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

1. BOD
2. Roy Keane
3. Suarez
4. Joe Hart
5. Rob Heffernan
6. Dan Martin
7. John Joe Nevin
8. Noel King
9. Alex Ferguson
10. Adam Scott

Twitter conversation starters

Pic: DailyEdge.ie. View a full-size image here

• #IrishBizParty
• #secondaryschoolmemories
• #IrishBlockbusters
• #primaryschoolmemories
• #youknowyoureirishwhen
• #irishpoliticalfilms
• #irelandin3words (you might recognise this as a hashtag started by our pals on DailyEdge.ie – it became so popular they made this map of Ireland out of your tweets under that tag.
• #donegalpostcodes
• #ThingsIrishPeopleDontSay
• #ThingsIrishPeopleSay

International news

1. Syria
2. David Frost
3. Cyprus
4. Angelina Jolie
5. Egypt
6. #prayforBoston
7. James Gandolfini
8. Pope
9. #royalbaby

People (including, but not only, Irish)

1. Bieber
2. BOD
3. Miley Cyrus
4. Ben Affleck
5. Roy Keane
6. Taylor Swift
7. David Frost
8. Ken Barlow
9. Seamus Heaney
10. Suarez

On a global level, the interest in celebrities’ Twitter accounts continued.

The most popular message on Twitter as a whole this year came from Glee star Lea Michele following the death of her co-star and boyfriend Cory Monteith:

Next came the official announcement of the death of Fast and the Furious actor Paul Walker in a car crash:

The next three most popular tweets came from One Direction band members. Tops was Mullingar’s Niall Horan, of course.

His bandmate Zayn Malik snaffled the next two – here and here.

The whole of Twitter’s report from 2013 just now went live on 2013.twitter.com.

Updated 09.29: Twitter updated ‘Irish people’ list to remove Joe Hart, and include Joe Brolly.

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