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Twitter Top 10 Trends Ireland: 22/02/16-29/02/16

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Nicole Taylor is a Junior at Lasell College. She is currently interning with Olytico as part of the CAPA study abroad programme.

Each week Olytico tracks the trending topics on Twitter in Ireland and across the globe. Here’s the Top 10 Trends in Ireland from the week ending February 29th 2016 – based on the total time the term trended.

1. #F1Testing

“As the sport of Formula One racing grew ever more technically demanding, so the practice of testing grew in importance. The old principle of tinkering with an instinctively designed car has long since been superseded by systematic testing of every major component and structure – both before and after the car is fully built and ready to race.” Formula1.com

On February 24th (third day of testing) in Barcelona, the top 5 times were as follows:

All tyres medium unless otherwise stated.

Nico Hulkenberg 1:23.110 (99 laps) – super-soft tyres

Romain Grosjean 1:25.874 (82) – soft

Kimi Raikkonen 1:25.977 (78)

Kevin Magnussen 1:26.014 (111) – soft

Nico Rosberg 1:26.084 (74)

2. #leadersdebate

On February 23rd, Enda Kenny, Joan Burton, Micheál Martin, and Gerry Adams gathered for the final leaders debate.

“All four leaders used a tactic whereby they were asked a question and within a millisecond were giving an answer that bore no relation to it. If you had watched the previous debates some themes may have been vaguely familiar. None bore any relation to O’Callaghan’s questions. They included: Slab Murphy, Gerry Adams’ IRA past, his medical treatment in the US, Micheal Martin’s time in health, Fine Gael’s universal health insurance, and Labour’s broken promises.” (Irish Times)

3. #OperationTransformation

On February 25th, RTE’s Operation Transformation finale was aired at 8:30pm. The top 5 leaders, Dan Kennedy, Lucy Dillon, Noeleen Lynam, Clare Scanlan, and John Conmy lost over 100 pounds combined in just 8 weeks.

The leaders shared their personal stories and essentially touched the hearts of the nation. Although the show has concluded for another season, Operation Transformation is still pushing Ireland to lose one million pounds before the end of the year – Million Pound Challenge.

4. #UFC196

Conor McGregor entertained his fans at the UFC 196 press conference on Wednesday, February 24th by dealing profanity and aggressive accusations against his new opponent Nate Diaz, a lightweight contender.

“McGregor – the popular Irishman who just arrived from Ireland this week – agreed to jump two weight classes to fight Diaz at 170 pounds.” UFC.com

5. Rashford

Manchester United, teenage striker Marcus Rashford is a “special talent”, according to Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal. Rashford marked his Premier League debut with two goals in three minutes as Manchester beat Arsenal 3-2 on Sunday, February 28th. Not only did Rashford get the crowd roaring on Sunday, but he also scored two goals against DC Midtjylland on Thursday the 25th in the Europa League.

6. Jack Chambers

On Saturday, February 27th, Jack Chambers was elected the Fianna Fáil Councilor for Dublin West without reaching the quota. The constituency had been without a Fianna Fáil seat since the death of Brian Lenihan, former minister of finance, in 2011.

“The 25-year-old said he was honoured to follow in the footsteps of Mr Lenihan. He said the election was a great day for Fianna Fáil and proved the electorate wanted a social conscience in Government.” (Irish Times)

Jack Chambers also trended on Twitter with many users comparing the new TD to a variety of popular characters.

7. #GAAcongress16

Big news came at the GAA’s Annual Congress meeting on Saturday, February 27th in Carlow: the introduction of the mark to Gaelic football.

“Winning 68 per cent of the vote, narrowly gaining the necessary two thirds majority, Motion 41, brought to Congress by the Standing Committee on Playing Rules, will see the following rule introduced: ‘When a player catches the ball cleanly from a Kick-Out without it touching the ground, on or past the 45m line nearest the KickOut point, he shall be awarded ‘a Mark’ by the Referee. The player awarded a ‘Mark’ shall have the options of (a) Taking a free kick or (b Playing on immediately.'” GAA.ie

8. #ldwh

Longford–Westmeath is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament. The constituency elects 4 deputies known as Teachta Dála (TD’s). The first official count for Longford-Westmeath was conducted on Friday, February 26th.

“Counting is expected to continue on Tuesday as two outgoing government TD’s await their fate and after a gender quota candidate was eliminated following a recount.” Independent.ie

9. Frank Kelly

Frank Kelly the actor, writer, satirist, and recording artist, died on Sunday, February 28th at the age of 77. The Irish people loved Kelly especially as Father Jack Hackett, the deranged, drunken old preacher hollering “Drink! Girls! Arse! Feck!” from his armchair in the priests’ house on Craggy Island.

“Frank Kelly was a versatile, talented and inventive actor. One of the ironies of this gracious, urbane, articulate, charming man is that he could not have been further removed from the personality of his most famous role, Fr Jack.” (Irish Times Culture)

10. Coldplay

The awards show, Brit Awards, the U.K.’s equivalent of the Grammys, held at London’s O2 Arena, featured performances by Adele, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, The Weeknd and more, as well as a special David Bowie tribute.

Coldplay was named Best British group and the band dedicated their award to male and female musicians in refugee camps around the world.

If you want to find out more about what trended in Ireland over the last seven days, feel free to send Olytico a request at info@olytico.com.

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