There are few things more controversial on St Patrick’s Day than the use of a four leaf clover instead of a shamrock.
One is an Irish symbol and inextricably linked with the country’s patron saint; the other is a four leaf clover and nothing to do with anything Irish.
But Twitter, at least, is trying to get it right. The social media platform has created an Irish themed emoji that will be triggered by a range of related St. Patrick’s Day hashtags, from #StPatricksDay and ##LáFhéilePádraig to #GrünFürIrland and #SãoPatrício. Nine different languages will get the shamrock treatment, as will #PaddysDay and #GlobalGreening. What won’t trigger the emoji? #StPattysDay.
“St Patrick’s Day is one of the biggest national holiday celebrations across the globe and naturally is one of the busiest days on Twitter for Irish-related posts with over 1.5 million St Patrick’s Day related tweets in 2017, a 290 per cent increase on 2016,” said Twitter Ireland managing director Sinead McSweeney. said. “ We want to encourage everyone across the world to join the St. Patrick’s Day conversation on Twitter so we’ve added eight new languages to trigger the emoji.”
So now there is no excuse for mixing up the four leaf clover with our nation’s emblem, at least on Twitter.
Next up: tackling the scourge that is “St Patty’s Day”.
