By now we all know what Twitter is and why there is such a buzz around it. It can be a bit daunting figuring out how to get started and who to follow. In the last year there have been a number of lists released by various people and institutions about who the most influential Irish twitterers are. These lists can be a great jumping off point, but we here at Radical/Pembroke took a casual approach and had a whip round the offices for the staff’s favourite Irish twits Don’t worry, we didn’t just let them run riot with their choices. We generated a shortlist and then analysed them using a neat little tool called ‘tweetlevel’, developed by global PR firm Edelman. The tool evaluates each twitter user name on four factors influence, popularity, engagement and trust. For more technical information about what elements feed into your tweetlevel visit the site here. Our list threw up some of the usual suspects including Damien Mulley, but we also got a few surprises too. Some of the more interesting tweeters are the people further down the list that are not always top of mind. By combining the interests of a PR company and a digital agency we have created a very interesting mix of influential individuals online in Ireland. We hope that whether you are a first time tweeter or an experienced twitterer there is something new for you in this list. So here is the list of our top tweeters in Ireland arranged by the ‘tweetlevel’ tool. Twitterer                                       Twitter                                 Tweetlevel 1. Arse Blog   http://twitter.com/arseblog   68 This is a great Irish based blog about Arsenal Football Club and all things football. This guy has over 11,000 followers on his twitter and is great for the engagement especially during matches. Take note new tweeters! 2. Damien Mulley  http://twitter.com/damienmulley  66 No Irish list is complete without Mulley. Tweetlevel has ranked him high and with good reason. Definitely worth following no matter what industry you are in. 3. Darragh Doyle   https://twitter.com/darraghdoyle  65 Darragh Doyle is communications manager over at Boards.ie. Loves his Twitter. Watch out for the bad jokes though. 4. Dave Moore   http://twitter.com/Dave98FM  65 Dave does the 98fm morning show. Tweets consistently during the show and after. He will always follow you back and interact, a really approachable guy. 5. Mark Little   https://twitter.com/marklittlenews   63 There is a great buzz around RTE’s Mark Little and his new venture Storyful. Often tweets social media industry news, but his fondness for current affairs remains intact. 6. Krishne De  http://twitter.com/KrishnaDe    63 Hardcore digital industry guru runs a great blog; she lives and works in Ireland. 26,000 followers can’t be wrong. 7. Pat Phelan  https://twitter.com/patphelan   63 Pat is an Irish tech expert. He runs a very approachable blog that looks at technology news from an Irish perspective. Tweets advice and often helps out with techie problems. 8. Sharon Corr  http://twitter.com/Sharon_Corr   61 Yes the Irish violin sensation is on Twitter. Sharon tweets her day-to-day goings on and often interacts with fans. Bono can’t even say that. 9. Redfly   http://twitter.com/redfly    60 Refly marketing are big in the online industry, specialise in PPC and search. 10. Nialler9  https://twitter.com/nialler9    60 This needs no intro to music lovers or fellow tweeters. Nialler9 is the editor of State magazine and is a must follow for all Irish music fans 11. David Cochrane http://twitter.com/davidcochrane   59 Founder of the politics forum politics.ie. He sparks the odd debate with a politician, makes for great tweeting. 12. Una Mullally  http://twitter.com/UnaMullally   58 Una is a journalist for the Tribune and frankly hilarious on Twitter. Bio: So I left a monkey in your fridge…. 13. The Irish Times https://twitter.com/the_irish_times   56 It is always handy to have a least one purely headline tweeter in your feed. This is one of the best, simple and to the point 14. Frank Fitzgibbon https://twitter.com/FrankSunTimes   56 Editor of the Irish Sunday Times. Irish Sunday Times doesn’t appear to have Twitter so this isn’t a bad substitute. 15. Silicon Republic http://twitter.com/siliconrepublic   56 This is another great technology website. It’s not quite as personable as Pat Phelan’s but still definitely worth the read. 16. Conor Pope   http://twitter.com/conor_pope   56 Conor Pope is the Irish Times Pricewatch editor and avid tweeter. 17. Pj Gallagher   http://twitter.com/pjgallagher   55 If only for a little humor in your day, Pj along with other Irish comedic legends such as Des Bishop are all tweet maniacs too. They often run competitions for tickets to their shows too. 18. Justin Parks  https://twitter.com/justinparks   55 Justin is an Irish social media guru living in Spain. Worth adding to your social media list to see what he is up to. 19. Ger Gilroy  https://twitter.com/gergilroy    54 Ger is a sports editor and works for Newstalk, great engagement, surprised he wasn’t higher up the list. 20. Irish Internet Association https://twitter.com/iia   54 An obvious one for anyone in the industry has huge influence and trust associated with it. 21. Ray Foley  https://twitter.com/rayfoleyshow   52 This one was mentioned by a few in the offices, personal favourite for a bit of radio tweeting. His blog is great for a laugh too. Love the show Ray! 22. Made in Hollywood http://twitter.com/madeinhollywood  50 This has to be one of the greatest examples of how any company can use social media regardless of their product offering. Made in Hollywood supply innovative polystyrene foam solutions to a number of industries. Yes, polystyrene foam. 23. Sarah Kavanagh https://twitter.com/slkav    50 Sarah is lead designer with social media firm Simply Zesty and has her own personal photoblog too. 24. Culch.ie  http://twitter.com/Culch_ie    49 This is a great pop culture blog from Ireland. They are not as active on the engagement side of things but it is a great entertainment blog. 25. Brand Ireland   https://twitter.com/BrandIreland   48 These guys provide great insights into Irish marketing and PR. The blog is very readable even if marketing is not your primary interest. 26. GAA_Beo  https://twitter.com/GAA_BEO   46 Guess what they tweet about? They don’t engage very often but do provide great GAA coverage so a must for all fans. 27. Richard Fitzgerald https://twitter.com/fitzyrichard   46 This is an Irish guy living in London working in social media. Has a great blog http://52burritodates.com/ where he is taking 52 different girls out on burrito date over a year. One of the lucky women was Laura Whitmore. 28. Electric Picnic  https://twitter.com/electricpicnic    37 Most of the big Irish festivals have Twitters this year. Oxegen have a live Twitter wall up by the main stage this year. Fingers crossed the picnic will take their lead.   29. Blanaid  https://twitter.com/blanaidhennessy  32 This is one of our favorite fashion bloggers. Unfortunately, not as active on Twitter as we would like hence to low score, but the blog is really great. 30. Social Media Ire https://twitter.com/SocialMediaIRE   32 This is a great independent pit stop for anyone interested in social media in Ireland. Could utilize twitter a little better through interaction but always comes up with good reads. So there you have it, this is by no means a definitive list, just the people we like to see in our feed. Don’t forget to add Irishmediawatch and RadicalDublin to yourTwitter feed too. We would love to hear from you. Tell us who your favourite Irish twits are! Aoife ...

Not often I would stay up til the early hours to watch any sport nevermind a match nearly 4,000 miles away but Super Bowl Sunday is the annual all nighter! After two brilliant games over the last two years, another brilliant game was a little much to ask for but I have to say I really enjoyed it. The most important thing about any match running past the 2am mark is that it must have entertainment and lots of action, twists and turns – and this game had it in spades. It must also have Maltesers and popcorn and unusually this year it also had Toobz (Tayto’s version of Pringles – which were only ok!). So action? Under the guidance of their quality, soon to be Hall of Famer quarter back, Peyton Manning, the Colts raced into an early 10 point lead. Then we had a 13 point come back by the Saints under the excellent tutleage of Drew Brees and then a brilliant 3rd quarter which started off with a rarely seen 10 yard on side kick (a rugby grubber kick essentially) by the Saints which resulted in a Saints retention. But then we had Manning really pulling the strings by the end of the quarter with a rushing TD for Attai. But it’s all about the 4th quarter. It had a field goal miss for the Colts by the 42 year old Stover (Manning wasn’t happy!). Pulled it left. Then a Saints TD and an attempted 2 point conversion (by way of another TD) which was over ruled, then appealed and the appeal upheld. So 24 v 17 Saints lead with just over 5 minutes to go. Then Manning goes for his favourite play with 3 minutes left and we get the first interception of the game by Tracy Porter who returns it 74 yards for a TD. 31 v 17. Big play.  Huge turn over. So, 3 minutes left, what could Manning do? Short answer nothing. From 10 nil down the New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl in their franchise history. Drew Brees was the MVP and deservedly so. And after the awful few years that city has had since Hurricane Katrina hit – it would be a hard man that would bedrudge them the win. ...

The never ending Dublin Gaelic football transfer saga involving Eamon Fennell took another dramatic twist last night when it emerged that the Dublin County Board was split on the decision of whether or not to allow the appeal and so it went to a veto which was cast againt Fennell transferring from his own club O’Tooles to St Vincent’s. For those of you not familiar with this story – here’s the long and the short of it – Fennell first applied for a transfer from his club three years ago but this was blocked and has remained blocked ever since. This has obviously not only curtailed his club playing career but also a promising inter county career with Dublin has been cut short.  The most interesting factor in my opinion is that both sides have a legitimate argument to make (and deserve to be heard). O’Toole’s, while admittedly not as strong at football as they would be at hurling, argue that if players are allowed just walk away from smaller clubs to bigger clubs it will wipe out the smaller clubs. But Fennell argues that his needs as a footballer have never been catered for as his club is primarily a hurling club and he is only trying to cater for his own sporting needs. So who wins? O’Toole’s have no Eamon Fennell lining out for them. St. Vincent’s don’t either. Eamon Fennell is working away as a club coach but is unable to practice what he preaches. And the Dublin County Board have denied their management team of one of it’s brightest stars. All have legitimate grievances. All have legitimate arguments to make. But something has to give. And someone will eventually lose. At the moment the one suffering most is probably Fennell himself. The famous Traolach MacSuibhne quote springs to mind: “It is not those who can inflict the most, but those that can suffer the most who will conquer.”  Time will tell whether this rings true or not. ...

Why is that kicking pr companies seems to be back in vogue these days? It has always been a treasured past time of a small number of journalists and generally raises its head around this time of year when journalists write to teach “stupid” pr firms the rules of engagement. This year it seems to have escalated, and has moved to a new level online where popular bloggers and Twitter users have taken glee in slagging off pr companies. Taking the mickey out of press releases, offers and invitations seems to be a source of huge amusement.. Now, I have no real issue with someone getting a public kick in the arse for doing something particularly stupid and many pr companies do themselves no favours at all. However, it is unfair to lump everyone into the same bracket. There is also the fact that sometimes a junior trainee may make a mistake, yes, a mistake, and to be batted on the head publicly can be a shameful experience for a youngster and at worst a career ending one. Pr companies should know better than to bombard journalists and bloggers with rubbish and trying to re sell and re hash dead stories is not a good idea. Annoying journalists and editors at deadline time is an obvious mistake but typos do sometimes happen the odd time and mistakes are made. Sometimes a private slap on the wrists is better than a megaphone and very public stripping down. Just my opinion anyhow. ...