I was tracking #MarRef tweets over the past few weeks in the run up to the marriage referendum and showing some basic stats over on Pretty Negative. There’s a lot more analysis that could be performed on these tweets so I’m making the ones that I’ve collected available for download. The dataset is in JSON format and licensed under Creative Commons Zero (individual tweets retain their author’s copyright).

Some things to note about this dataset:

  • This is not an exhaustive, comprehensive collection. Some tweets will be missing in places.
  • The earliest tweets were collected as a byproduct before specifically searching for the #MarRef hashtag. They are included here as an early snapshot.
    • The earliest tweet has a timestamp of 2015-01-23 09:24:53.
  • The dataset ends about midnight on Sunday 24th May 2015, so includes the day of the referendum count and one additional day of tweets.
    • The latest tweet has a timestamp of 2015-05-24 23:43:27.
  • The collection contains 229,563 #MarRef tweets in total.
Top tweeters Count Most Mentioned Count
@Martin17773 2382 @YesEquality2015 6742
@TheScarletElf 1963 @Colmogorman 2504
@AntoniaPDon 1612 @DavQuinn 2293
@IzzyKamikaze 1332 @IrishTimes 2081
@MFM_Ireland 1276 @MFM_Ireland 1776
@pmbarrins 1222 @KeithM 1545
@david75donovan 1211 @UnaMullally 1350
@HangBlaa 1087 @labour 1337
@HelenORahilly 1068 @PantiBliss 1161
@Cunionsandphey 946 @ireland 1144
@Colmogorman 905 @Independent_ie 938
@CaroleLeger 887 @EndaKennyTD 890
@Paul71 785 @YesEqualityCork 807
@timelesstotty 734 @mrs_bopp 769
@kencurtin 720 @FineGael 698
@YesEquality2015 690 @YouTube 679
@Lamhfada 689 @RonanMullen 670
@Omaniblog 661 @NewstalkFM 613
@daithigorman 635 @MPTIreland 608
@YesEqualityCork 619 @PaddyJManning 606
@Independent_ie 614 @marriagequality 591
@Dodslaw 565 @noelwhelan 586
@Blackhall99 550 @MariaLaoise 560
@TheEvertBopp 518 @TheEvertBopp 555
@RebeccahLouise 508 @BeLonG_To 545
@Cgoraghallaigh 495 @jerrybuttimer 543
@Khayden2412 485 @GallMandy 524
@alanearly 484 @thejournal_ie 523
@pauljoneill 477 @morningireland 519
@mrs_bopp 465 @SenatorKZappone 518
@hometime_music 435 @simoncoveney 518
@thomasJKW 433 @Paul71 515
@spiller2 424 @TheScarletElf 509
@Donal_OKeeffe 423 @campaignforleo 497
@NewstalkFM 418 @AodhanORiordain 486
@BPDCarey 410 @rte 485
@KeithM 408 @MaryFitzgibbon 471
@kehbayhoody 405 @HelenORahilly 468
@NORTHANNE 402 @fiannafailparty 453
@BabyMonsterGoon 385 @HangBlaa 436
@YewtreeGirl 377 @markohalloran 425
@anita_furlong 373 @rtenews 424
@GallMandy 372 @IzzyKamikaze 382
@pmcchambers 364 @RefCom_ie 370
@MPTIreland 362 @SenDavidNorris 341
@MaryFitzgibbon 362 @daithigorman 334
@LaobhaoiseNihE 360 @johndwalsh 317
@BeLonG_To 359 @AmnestyIreland 312
@brian_dneen 359 @kencurtin 302
@Dailigh 358 @FintanOToolbox 293
Top Hashtags Count
#VoteYes 29453
#YesEquality 21368
#VoteNo 6731
#Ireland 5471
#hometovote 4307
#Yes 4069
#MakeGraTheLaw 3961
#equality 3867
#MarriageEquality 3288
#rtept 2902
#VoteYesForEquality 2745
#vinb 2291
#cblive 2175
#EqualityForAll 1868
#latelate 1428
#MarRef2015 1390
#IrelandVoteYes 1337
#LGBT 1276
#IVoted 1242
#marriagequality 1161
#proudtobeirish 1077
#PresRef 973
#YesVote 959
#LoveIsLove 936
#YestoLove 922
#YesEquality2015 815
#MakeItHappen 808
#VoterMotor 795
#LetsMakeHistory 775
#Eurovision 758
#LateLateShow 687
#love 666
#Eurovision2015 647
#WeMadeHistory 622
#IrelandSaysYes 614
#Cork 611
#BeLonGToYES 606
#Dublin 606
#equalmarriage 599
#marriageeqaulity 566
#marian 539
#YesToEquality 526
#ArasRef 516
#ssm 507
#IrelandSaidYES 497
#BeMyYes 494
#IRL 470
#ntfm 442
#Irish 426
#No 405

Go forth and analyse! And please let me know if you do something awesome or if there are issues with the dataset.

Download the tweets from Figshare.