Clash Of The Twitans

t’s a place where the exclamation mark is king, where you can only speak in black or white.

Which is probably why it was Trump’s social media platform of choice, until the stranger to grey matter was fact-shamed off.

Yep, Twitter is a strange little bird of prey, and for those who are keen to be liked – at least 100 times a day – it’s one of the needy evils out there.

In this sometimes nasty online popularity battle, having your friends, followers and family big you up on social media is a crucial part of the game. Especially when the family in question is a major government department.

Which is probably why Stephen Donnelly TD began to query his not being mentioned in tweets posted by the Department Of Health. Given that he is, you know, the Minister for Health.

An analysis of the department’s Twitter feed was completed for the minister in mid-January, as the country went through a third wave of Covid-19, and it showed no reference to Mr Donnelly. Compared to other individuals and State agencies getting 78 mentions by the department, including 21 tweets for chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan.

Also noted was the fact that Donnelly’s constituency rival and fellow Greystonian Simon Harris was mentioned 10 times in tweets by the Department of Further and Higher Education, of which the latter is minister, after handing over the role of Minister Of Health to the former on June 27th last year.

The details were released to The Irish Times after a Freedom Of Information request, and it revealed that the analysis – labelled ‘Health/Higher Education Graph‘ – was shared with the department’s interim secretary general Robert Watt, who promptly raised the issue with Deirdre Watters, the department’s head of communications.

On January 14th, Watt wrote in an email with the subject line ‘private and confidential’, stating ‘Deirdre, the Minister completed an analysis of the department’s Twitter feed. There is no reference to the Minister, as you can see. We need to discuss. Thank you, Robert‘.

In the fortnight following Mr Watt’s email, the department retweeted 12 of Mr Donnelly’s tweets and mentioned him in two others.

Young Harris meanwhile is steadily becoming Paddy Kardashian, having recently gone into Full Influencer mode. And the numbers are telling.

Mr Donnelly has 68,000 followers on Twitter and his department has 124,000. Mr Harris has 212,000 followers while his department has less than 10,000.