Farewell, Irish Twitter and its #vinb, #hometovote, coddle and Uncle Joey

‘Irish Twitter’ happened in spite of, not because of, any deliberate strategy on the part of the social media giant and Darach Ó Séaghdha is in mourning at its imminent demise

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.