IT WAS a memorable year for many reasons across the world – and in an age of social media, it is easily documented.
Twitter has revealed the biggest worldwide trends on its website for 2015 and one of the most historic moments in modern Irish history has nabbed third place.
The #MarriageEquality hashtag was widely used throughout the campaign for marriage equality in Ireland earlier this year.
Ireland made history by becoming the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage through popular vote when the yes side emerged victorious on May 22.
London-based Sarah Duffy and Oonagh Murphy with Christine Kehoe, centre, were among those who came from England to vote Yes. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie"The #HomeToVote hashtag became hugely popular when Irish citizen expats shared their experiences returning home to vote," Twitter said in their end of year statement.
Along with #MarriageEquality, the #HomeToVote trend was massively popular, with the Irish Diaspora across the world using it to show their support as they made their way home to cast their vote.
The #MarriageEquality trend was also reignited a month after Ireland's vote when the US legalised gay marriage at the Supreme Court.
Came #hometovote all the way from London and found my mum had made some subtle changes to my room for me #VoteYes pic.twitter.com/BOdxqXhJoN
— Kevin Beirne (@KevBeirne) May 21, 2015
The historic same-sex marriage referendum was the single most talked about topic in Ireland of 2015 too.
Topping the marriage equality trend to the top was #ParisAttacks – with millions of tweets emerging on the site after last month’s horrific shootings.
Coming in second place was #BlackLivesMatter, a hashtag that was used to show solidarity with numerous fatal shootings that took place in the US this year involving police and black citizens.
The European refugee crisis saw the trend #RefugeesWelcome take fourth place, with human rights activists chiming in with their two cents on whether Europe should accept the thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
Rounding off the top five was #IStandWithAhmed, a trend which emerged after a Texas teenager found himself arrested after bringing his digital clock to school, which was mistaken for a bomb.
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