The same-sex marriage referendum was the most talked about Irish news topic on Twitter this year, according to new data from the microblogging network.
Twitter’s end-of-year summary also shows that the economic crisis in Greece (#Greece) and the terrorist attacks in Paris (#PrayForParis and #CharlieHebdo) were the international news issues most discussed by people in Ireland during 2015.
The discussion and controversy around Irish Water (#irishwater) was the Irish political story which trended most often during the past 12 months.
In the sporting sphere, Liverpool Football Club (#LFC) topped the list of the most tweeted sporting hashtags during the period.
According to Twitter, this year was also the year of the emoji - the yellow face featuring tears of joy was the one most commonly adopted by users.
The most retweeted message of the year came from One Direction's Harry Styles, with the band's Irish member Liam Horan also making the global top ten retweets for birthday wishes he tweeted to another band member, Liam Payne.
By far, the most influential topic driving Twitter conversations during the year was the referendum on same sex marriage, which was behind four of the top five trending hashtags of 2015 in Ireland.
Ireland's same-sex marriage referendum has been passed
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 23, 2015
From the time the polls opened at 7am on 22 May until 7pm on 23 May, around the time the result was announced, there were over 400,000 tweets sent under the #MarRef hashtag.
More than 72,000 tweets were posted using the #hometovote hashtag, as people chronicled their journeys back to Ireland to cast their ballots.
This is the scene on the 9:10 London to Holyhead train as Irish abroad return #hometovote #marref pic.twitter.com/spVfkb5sIT
— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) May 22, 2015
Elsewhere, 4.4 million tweets were posted on 26 and 27 February alone about a picture of a dress which some saw as blue and black and others as white and gold.
Former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner smashed the record for reaching one million followers after she joined the social network in June, racking up the figure in four hours.
2015 was also the year that US President Barack Obama also got his own account, separate from that previously used by his campaigns, when he took on the @POTUS username in May.
