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The Week On Twitter: Marriage Equality, The Eclipse and Russell Crowe

By Louisa McGrath

This week Twitter trends were extra Irish, because of St. Patrick’s Day and the plentiful amount of home brewed news to keep us tweeting.

 

St. Patrick’s Day Posts #ProudToBeIrish #Ireland

As the St. Patrick’s Day kicked off this hash tag didn’t take long to take off and Irish people tweeted reasons to be proud of their heritage on Paddy’s Day.

https://twitter.com/AaronBlakeOC/status/577623134708375552

It appears the hash tag was started by One Direction’s Niall Horan and trended just as much as Happy St. Patrick’s Day or #StPatricksDay in Ireland. But on the upside #PattysDay did not trend this year, our American friends seem to have learned how much we hate when they get it wrong.

I also thought this would be the perfect opportunity to point out something I’ve noticed since I began writing The Week On Twitter a month ago. Since I started tracking Ireland’s trending topics on 23 February, #Ireland has trended on Twitter every single day. Sometimes, it is sports related, but often it doesn’t appear to be for any particular reason. As far as I can see we are the only country that talks about ourselves so much on Twitter, and St. Patrick’s Day was no different. We really are a proud and self-absorbed nation.

 

Get Out And Vote #StandUp4Love

On Thursday night DIT societies, including the DIT LGBT Society, organised a night of comedic and musical entertainment in Vicar Street. Stand Up 4 Love featured Panti Bliss, Davina Devine, Hudson Taylor, Vann Music, Ham Sandwich, Rainy Boy Sleep, The Rubberbandits and Brendan Courtney. The purpose of the event was to campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the upcoming Marriage Equality Referendum.

https://twitter.com/HudsonTaylor/status/578587813106569216

The show targeted the student demographic, although it is already the most likely to vote yes in the referendum. But according to GLEN research, it is also the demographic that is least likely to vote in general, so the night of entertainment was aimed at encouraging students to make sure go to the polling stations and vote on May 22nd.

Stand Up 4 Love definitely proved popular with the Tweeters, as it trended into Friday morning:

https://twitter.com/Holly0910/status/578649525574889472

 

Solar Eclipse or Cloudy Skies #eclipse2015

Ireland was plunged into darkness on Friday morning as a solar eclipse took place. The eclipse took place at 8.30 in the morning and many people were up and out to get a glimpse of the occurrence, which is rarely visible from Ireland. However, the cloudy weather had a negative effect on the view from certain parts of the country, like Dublin:

But the dull weather didn’t seem to affect the view in Cork:

 

Rhythm & Beers #Usher

American singer Usher was making waves on Twitter this week as he arrived in Dublin for his concert in the 3 Arena on Friday night. But he made sure he had time to do some sightseeing beforehand and posted every moment of his visit to the Guinness Storehouse on Instagram.

 

Protesting Water Protests #liveline

On Friday, the day before the fourth major water charges protest in Dublin’s city centre, Joe Duffy’s Liveline featured heated discussions between those who support the protests and those who oppose them. One caller to the show complained about the protests’ negative effect on businesses in town, while another complained that she had received a leaflet about the protest although she has a ‘no junk mail’ sign on her letterbox. The various arguments invoked a lot of reaction on Twitter.

 

An Emotional Roller Coaster #LateLateShow

Last night on The Late Late Show Ryan Tubridy spoke to the McMullan family, who came into the Irish limelight after a video of Mark McMullan singing to his brother Declan, who has locked-in syndrome, went viral. Declan’s condition means he knows everything that is going on around him, but cannot control his movements after he suffered from cardiac arrest. Declan loves his brother to sing ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables and the viral video was relived last night as Mark sang the song live on television. This invoked a strong emotional response from viewers.

https://twitter.com/BrianHurley15/status/579061895778435073

Meanwhile Russell Crowe was also trending on Twitter after his appearance on the Late Late Show. He showed Irish viewers that he is truly multi-talented with a rendition of Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’. Many viewers also appreciated his sense of humour.

Photo: The Yes Equality Facebook page

Louisa McGrath 31 posts 0 comments

Louisa is a freelance writer based in Dublin. Having graduated from DIT, she is now scrambling to leave student life behind and establish herself in the world of journalism. Tweeting from @LouisaMcGrath

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