As we come to the end of another year...
Irish and International news
In Ireland for 2018, Twitter was a platform used largely for political discourse. All top three trends or hashtags were related to political and governmental matters.
Firstly #repealthe8th was the top shared hashtag on Irish Twitter this year.
Other popular referendum hashtags shared were #together4yes, #8thref, and #savethe8th.
This was closely followed by discussion around Brexit and the Presidential election. #brexit came second in the top Irish news hashtags while #aras18 (which unlocked a special Presidential emoji) came third.
It's been quite the year for weather. As a result, helping to round out the top five was #beastfromtheeast , with other noteworthy related hashtags including #stormemma, #sneachta and #snowmageddon , at number four. The gas #gdpr came third.
#brexit was actually the top international news hashtag as well. It beat out #worldcup at number 2 and #trump at number 3. It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that #royalwedding was the fourth most popular. #russia was the fifth.
Television
Can you remember what was the most popular TV show this year? No, we're not talking about the 'Late Late Toy Show' but 'Love Island'. After #loveisland , #eurovision was the most popular hashtag (is it just us or does that seem like aaaaages ago?).
The next three spots all went to Irish television - the Tonight Show (#tonighttv3), RTÉ Prime Time (#rtept) and Claire Byrne Live (#cblive).
The most popular, retweeted and liked tweets
Unsurprisingly, the most popular individual tweets reflect back the most popular trends. As a result, these top two tweets respectively displayed heart and humour in the face of #StormEmma and #beastfromtheeast
Many of our amazing hospital staff are sleeping overnight in the Mater so they can care for patients tomorrow. #StormEmma
Give this as many retweets as you can before they get up in the morning
Video cred to @cirdowling#ThankYou pic.twitter.com/DpiPLl9L73— Mater Hospital Foundation (@TheMaterFoundat) March 1, 2018
So err... anyone do anything nice over the weekend?
— Lidl Ireland (@lidl_ireland) March 5, 2018
People also seemed to love seeing RuPaul speaking as Gaeilge and promoting the show 'Ireland's Got Talent':
There was mourning for one of Ireland’s most loved musicians, Dolores O’Riordan, this year. Her bandmates from the Cranberries thus shared this heartbreaking tweet for her, which touched thousands across the web:
We are devastated on the passing of our friend Dolores. She was an extraordinary talent and we feel very privileged to have been part of her life from 1989 when we started the Cranberries. The world has lost a true artist today.
Noel, Mike and Fergal— The Cranberries (@The_Cranberries) January 15, 2018
This RTE news report of a foiled robbery involving an 85 year old also proved a hit with Tweeters:
85-year-old great grandfather foils attempted robbery at Cork bookmaker | https://t.co/gWJrcLQyw4 pic.twitter.com/XHEkD13dgJ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 17, 2018
Most quoted tweets
Cher, the Royal Wedding and the touching story of a retired marine provided the subject matter for this year's most quoted tweets.
Hi again
— Cher (@cher) July 25, 2018
Do you look at your man like this? pic.twitter.com/poZGClXSth
— Kam #8🏁 (@Culturecams) May 19, 2018
Global trends
Internationally the biggest day of 2018 on Twitter was February 25th, the day of the Olympic closing ceremony. GIFs proved as popular as ever with over half a billion posted this year.
The top three hashtags shared globally were #nowplaying, #newprofilepic and #bbb18 (Big Brother TV show Brazil).
Proving their phenomenal following worldwide, KPOP band BTS (@bts_tweet) was the most used handle around the world during 2018. They also provided one of the most liked tweets of the year, as did the beloved Barrack Obama. Finally, @chloecopley’s hilarious Tweet about her dog and his ear medicine was the third most liked tweet globally.
Young people have helped lead all our great movements. How inspiring to see it again in so many smart, fearless students standing up for their right to be safe; marching and organizing to remake the world as it should be. We've been waiting for you. And we've got your backs.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 22, 2018
You too can share your biggest stories, memories and conversations of 2018 today using #ThisHappened