Brooks on-off concert debacle dominates Twitter for 2014

Irish Water may be the issue which forced most people to take to the streets in protest during 2014, but it was a mere trickle compared to the virtual deluge Garth Brooks created on Twitter this year.

Thu, 11 Dec, 2014 - 00:00

Stephen Rogers

The country megastar’s on-off concert schedule in Croke Park was the most frequently trending Irish news story in 2014, according to Twitter’s Year in Review for Ireland.

While it can safely be said that Brooks let the country down, the Irishman who set the trend most over the last 12 months did so for all the right, albeit emotive, reasons.

Dunnes Stores - I guess I have to buy 5 or none #bargain #garthgate pic.twitter.com/K5kKPIa3tM
— Brenda Drumm - Tobin (@BrendaDrumm) July 24, 2014

On March 15, Brian O’Driscoll shared an iconic image of the last time he hung up his Ireland number 13 jersey and boots and bid his final goodbye to Irish rugby.

Phew! Worked out ok! Thanks for all the messages of support. Unreal feeling. Not easy taking this off for last time pic.twitter.com/Sq89BdLOnw
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) March 15, 2014

Alongiside the picture he wrote: “Phew! Worked out ok! Thanks for all the messages of support. Unreal feeling. Not easy taking this off for last time.”

The message peaked at more than 39,000 retweets.

That day was not just momentous for the captain’s retirement. It also marked one of the biggest sporting events of the year when Ireland defeated France in Paris to win the Six Nations for the first time since 2009. According to Twitter, there were more than 210,000 tweets sent celebrating the victory during the 24-hour period following the match.

It was not the biggest sporting — tweet-wise — with an Irish involvement during 2014.

According to Twitter: “The All Ireland football semi-final took second place in Ireland’s top tweeted-about moments. The nail-biting match, which took place on August 24 between Kerry and Mayo, saw a last-minute point from Kerry to take the match to a replay. Fans flocked to Twitter to celebrate and analyse the game.”

Cracking thriller in #CrokePark. Great advert for the game. Well done to both @Kerry_Official and @MayoGAA pic.twitter.com/Imo6uRC4OK
— Aodh Ó Fearraigh (@HMFerry) August 24, 2014

However, Ireland was not even in the sporting event which trended most with the Irish twitterati, the World Cup finals.

Away from sport, an episode of Love/Hate provided the top moment which caused the biggest spikes in Irish twitter traffic.

Fans flocked to the social media site to discuss the gruesome episode on October 26 which saw a child being shot, Pauley being pushed off a roof by Siobhán, and Patrick slitting a man’s throat.