Farewell, Irish Twitter and its #vinb, #hometovote, coddle and Uncle Joey
The moment that Irish Twitter really proved to be a force to be reckoned with was #hometovote in 2015, used by emigrants returning to Ireland to take part in the Marriage Equality referendum. Picture: RollingNews.ie
Earlier this week Elon Musk announced plans to charge all users to the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
This was the latest in a series of baffling decisions which have marked his brief tenure as owner of the platform, and led to the single largest spike in new account sign-ups for rival platform Blue Sky. And while “X” may continue to exist for some time like hair and fingernails growing on a corpse, the recent exodus feels like an ending.
If anyone should write an article defending Twitter it should be me. Before I created @theirishfor in 2015, I was an entry-level office worker with a small pile of rejection letters and, like too many men in their 30s, my friend group had disintegrated as the lads got married and moved to different far-flung ends of the commuter belt.
My twitter account brought me to the attention of editors, a publishing deal, invites to live events abroad, an acknowledgment on the latest Hozier album, new work opportunities, a shout-out from President Higgins and lots of wonderful friends.
It has given me so much… so when I say the place is now an irredeemable hellhole I really mean it. The recent changes have been an act of unforgivable vandalism to a platform which, for its many faults, was less shallow and materialistic than other social media spaces and especially useful for outsiders to realise they were not alone.
In particular, “Irish Twitter” was a unique and uniquely significant space which may not be replicated on another platform, and I resent the way it has been taken from us. The idea that Twitter could or should have its own Irish section was not intentional, and owed something to the historical moment.
The micro-blogging site happened to catch on around the same time as the financial crisis and bailout in 2009 and 2010. People with things to say about the crisis found others of a space to get it off their chest on the #vinb hashtag (in reference to the TV3 show Tonight With Vincent Browne), which was coined by twitter user Simon McGarr (@Tupp_Ed) in May 2009.
McGarr says that early adapters to this hashtag were people who had been active in Liveblogs and that community — invite only, election obsessed, detail oriented — set the constructive and engaged tone in Irish Twitter. Before long people were using this hashtag even when not referring directly to the show but to a range of issues which might be discussed on the show.
This is critical because while Irish people have always argued about politics, emigration meant that people with a pretty relevant perspective on how things were going were always removed from the conversation at home. Social media changed that.
It wasn’t all politics all the time, of course, and as an online community grew, people could speak about the moments they witnessed at the same time. This is when the sense of humour which Irish Twitter would become famous for took shape — people live-tweeting about the Rose of Tralee, Love/Hate and the Late Late Toy Show together.
Facebook groups as different from each other as Ireland Simpsons Fans, Chicken Fillet Roll Talk and Oh My God What A Complete Aisling all gathered hyper-local observational humour — often tinted with the nostalgia of an emigrant — but Twitter was where these flavours combined like a spice bag to create something new.
By 2011, it was normal enough globally for elections to have their own hashtags, and #GE11 was used for the General Election in Ireland that year. But in February that year #aras11 was suggested by Twitter user Ken Curtin for the Irish Presidential Election as #pe11 hashtag was already in use for a sporting event in Spain.
This was significant in being the first moment where an Irish word was used to filter an event or discussion point locally — this would turn up again in #sneachta on snowy days, #whatthefliuch on rainy days as well as election slogan hashtags like #MakeGráTheLaw and #TáForMná later in the decade too. And while newspaper archives tell of candidates in 1990 and 1997 in “a race for the Park”, this phrase is never used anymore in print or radio — it’s Áras all the way now.
But the moment that Irish Twitter really proved to be a force to be reckoned with was #hometovote in 2015, used by emigrants returning to Ireland to take part in the Marriage Equality referendum. This went on to be the fifth biggest trending topic on Twitter globally that year.
That December it would inspire the good-humoured spin-off hashtag #hometoride as singletons would announce their return to Ireland or their hometown. This combination of the serious and the irreverent would become absolutely critical to the atmosphere of the online space.
Around this time, Irish Twitter’s speed and saltiness in responding to uninformed comments about Ireland, Irish names and and the Irish language was noticed. Hapless rubes who dared to refer to “gaelic” as a dialect, or Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan as British actors, or to claim that customers in a republican socialist pub in Dublin fell silent and raised a glass to the Queen on news of her passing, would find themselves the subject of a richly-deserved teasing.
By 2018, Irish Twitter had become fully self aware and references such as “Eoin did u collect eggs”, “my limes”, pintmen, meeting President McAleese on ketamine, and the coddle wars were as familiar as quotes from sitcoms. It got to the point that when something mad was happening — callers on Liveline complaining about the sex scenes in Normal People, for example — you knew that Irish Twitter was going to be a goldmine of craic.
The social media team at TG4 took this to another level, leading to people speculating on who “intern TG4” was. The apex of these good times were on the day of the Friends reunion show when a number of people observed that Matt LeBlanc now looked like a genial Irish uncle, leading to days of memes and jokes about a type character we all know and like.
The “Uncle Joey” memes about Matt Le Blanc were from over two years ago and it makes you think about how long it has been since that website has been a pleasant and informative place to visit. Changes such as Twitter Blue have meant that funny and informative replies don’t turn up in your feed as often as obnoxious drivel from people who have willingly paid to be verified.
Irish Twitter happened in spite of, not because of, anything deliberate that the social media giant did. It was a series of happy accidents which the company’s new bosses have, in their wisdom, decided to fix. They’re welcome to rule the ashes but I’ll mourn Ireland’s 33rd online county. They never owned that.
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