The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Brussels Attacks, 1916, and Twitter’s 10th Birthday

By Jade Hayden

This week, Twitter witnessed Belgium suffer a devastating terrorist attack in the country’s capital, leaving 31 people dead and hundreds injured. We also prepared ourselves for the Easter centenary, got a bit tired of Roddy Doyle and celebrated Twitter’s 10th birthday.

Belgium declares three days of mourning following coordinated attacks #BrusselsAttacks

On Tuesday morning, three separate nail bombs were set off in Brussels – two in the city’s airport and one in Maelbeek metro station. The bombings took the lives of 34 people, including three suicide bombers, and left over 300 injured. Following the attacks, the Belgian government raised the country’s terror alert to the highest possible level, and announced three days of national mourning.

Authorities are calling the bombing the deadliest terrorist attack to have ever occurred in Belgium.

https://twitter.com/Finleymariex/status/712384014783537154

https://twitter.com/stacey_anne84/status/712299496462491648

The aftermath of the attack saw all of the city’s public transport grind to a halt, as people were advised to seek immediate shelter and contact their loved ones through text or social media. The hashtags #OpenHouse and #IkWilHelpen (I will help) were used by those offering a place for people to spend the night who had no safe way to return home.

Ireland gets ready for the #1916 centenary weekend #Easter #Rising 

It’s Easter this week, which means it’s been a whole 100 years since the 1916 Rising (or 99 years and 11 months if you take into consideration that the 1916 Rising actually occurred on April 24th because Easter is weird and constantly changing and just super early this year for whatever reason, but this weekend is when we’re marking it, so it’s grand).

There are many events on this weekend that you can go to to commemorate the men and women who died fighting for Ireland. Here’s a list of 50 of them. They include a big commemoration parade, a laying of a wreath, a talk about suffrage in the early 20th century, a reading of the proclamation, a tented village in Stephen’s Green, and lots and lots of exhibitions.

It’ll be a big weekend, and lots of people are looking forward to it. Some other people aren’t looking forward to it that much because O’Connell’s Street is closed, and town will be packed, and there’s no luas and stuff. All of those people are tweeting about it.

https://twitter.com/daithihartery/status/713065407255592960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

#RoddyDoyle‘s Two Pints posts go too far for some…

Roddy Doyle is a good man. He’s been around for a long time, and he’s given us lots of great things like The Commitments, The Snapper, The Giggler Treatment, and The Van. As of late, he’s also given us a lot of Facebook posts in the form of his Two Pints series, which sees two fellas sit down with two pints to have a bit of a conversation about an event that just happened in the world. It could be the death of the beloved celebrity, the tragic loss of a prominent cultural figure, or even just a bit of dodgy weather we’ve been having.

This week, Roddy wrote about the terrorist attacks in Brussels, and lots of people were not happy. Then, Roddy proceeded to include the tragic deaths of the family who drowned in Donegal to this post about the terrorist attacks in Brussels, and people were even less happy.

https://twitter.com/anniewestdotcom/status/712611524767035393

Others were less annoyed by Roddy’s post, and more annoyed at those who were annoyed at the post in the first place. Those people took to twitter to express their outrage, and tweet their support for Roddy.

https://twitter.com/HollyShortall/status/712927292356472832

Twitter turns 10 #LoveTwitter 

This week, Twitter turned 10 years old. That’s a whole decade since Jack sent the first ‘just setting up my twttr’ tweet, since all the cool people left Facebook forever, and since we all lost a good chunk of our lives to the internet but for the best possible reason.

#LoveTwitter trended to mark the occasion. People filled it with all the reasons why Twitter meant lots to them. Those reasons included boredom alleviation, meeting new people, learning new things, keeping super up to date with news, using RTs to determine your self-worth, fighting MRAs, celebrities replying to you sometimes, and lots of other things too.

Here are some of them.

https://twitter.com/twitter/status/711658625924620288

https://twitter.com/dog_rates/status/711973066037972992

https://twitter.com/KeithMallender/status/711959841179377664

Featured image source

Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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