The Irish News engagement report
@irish_news - 155K followers on X
Measured over 58 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on September 23, 2026.
Engagement
A typical post picks up 4 interactions against 155K followers, an engagement rate of 0.003%. Measured over 58 original posts, its engagement rate beats 10% of 19,933 tracked accounts of a similar size. That is a reason to look at how the audience behaves - reply depth, saves, whether the followers are recent - rather than a conclusion about it on its own. Posts are seen about 3.0K times each, and 0.151% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 1.91% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 2 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 7% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 21:00 UTC, and Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 58 posts sampled, 48% carry an image or video and 90% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 164 interactions, about 41x its own typical post.
Measured over 58 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on September 23, 2026.
Compared with accounts its own size
The Irish News's engagement rate beats 10% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (19,933 accounts, accounts of similar size (decile 8 of 10)). A percentile is spread evenly by construction, so 50 really is the middle of that group and 90 really is its top tenth.
On engagement per impression rather than per follower it beats 8% of the same group. When those two numbers disagree, the gap is about how far its posts travel rather than how people react to them.
Where this sits in the catalog
At 0.003%, The Irish News sits below the 10th percentile of the 201,665 accounts in this comparison. That places it in the bottom 25% band, which runs below 0.024%.
Show the percentile table
| Percentile | Engagement rate |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 0.004% |
| 25th percentile | 0.024% |
| 50th percentile | 0.142% |
| 75th percentile | 0.671% |
| 90th percentile | 2.53% |
| 99th percentile | 82.5% |
This ruler is the whole measured catalog, not a size-matched group: it shows where the raw rate falls across every account we can measure, all of which are large. For a like-for-like comparison, read the size-band percentile above instead. See how the bands are built
Posting timing
This account posts most often around 21:00 UTC, and Wednesday is its busiest day of the week. The bars below are the catalog-wide pattern, with this account's own busiest slot marked. They do not show how this account performs at each hour: we keep one aggregate per account, not one per hour, so that measurement does not exist in our data.
Show engagement by hour posted, utc as a table
| Hour (UTC) | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | -1% | 89K |
| 01:00 UTC | -2% | 90K |
| 02:00 UTC | -3% | 88K |
| 03:00 UTC | -4% | 94K |
| 04:00 UTC | -5% | 76K |
| 05:00 UTC | -4% | 75K |
| 06:00 UTC | -5% | 86K |
| 07:00 UTC | -5% | 93K |
| 08:00 UTC | -4% | 108K |
| 09:00 UTC | -4% | 124K |
| 10:00 UTC | -3% | 129K |
| 11:00 UTC | -3% | 141K |
| 12:00 UTC | -3% | 154K |
| 13:00 UTC | -3% | 167K |
| 14:00 UTC | -4% | 173K |
| 15:00 UTC | -2% | 176K |
| 16:00 UTC | -3% | 171K |
| 17:00 UTC | -3% | 159K |
| 18:00 UTC | -2% | 149K |
| 19:00 UTC | -2% | 141K |
| 20:00 UTC | -1% | 131K |
| 21:00 UTC | 0% | 116K |
| 22:00 UTC | -2% | 100K |
| 23:00 UTC | -1% | 90K |
Show engagement by day of week as a table
| Day | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | +5% | 393K |
| Monday | +1% | 483K |
| Tuesday | -2% | 520K |
| Wednesday | -3% | 472K |
| Thursday | -2% | 430K |
| Friday | -3% | 447K |
| Saturday | +2% | 393K |
Formats this account uses
Its own posting mix on the left, and what each of those formats does across every account we track on the right. Only formats where the effect clears our publish test appear here, so an empty row is a format we could not measure rather than one that does nothing.
| Format | This account | Catalog effect | 95% interval | Accounts behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image or video | 48% of posts | +111% | +108% to +115% | 34K |
| Outbound link | 90% of posts | -41% | -42% to -40% | 32K |
| Typical length | - | no effect | -2% to -1% | 42K |
- 48% of this account's sampled posts carry an image or video. Across the catalog, posts with an image or video run 111% above the same accounts' other posts.
- 90% of its posts carry a link off X. Across the catalog, posts with an outbound link run 41% below the same accounts' other posts, so a large share of this account's output sits in the weakest bucket we measure.
- Its average post runs 222 characters, which falls in the 180 - 280 characters band. Across the catalog, posts of 180 to 280 characters match the same accounts' other posts almost exactly.
These are catalog-wide differences applied to this account's own posting mix, not a measurement of how each format performs for this account specifically. We keep one median per account, not one per format per account, so the second thing is not something this data can tell you.
Best tweets
- Sep 22, 202641x their median
"I have checked, double-checked, and then triple-checked – and can find not one single mention of a Nobel Prize having been awarded to the Israel FA. "If they mean Nobel Prizes awarded to people from Israel then even that is a matter for debate. "Of the 14 names listed only ONE was actually born in Israel. Two others moved there, one aged 9, the other 13." Read Kenny Archer: https://t.co/Q8aJ3LsJWQ
- Sep 22, 202640x their median
Former Ulster Unionist councillor Linzi McLaren has been selected to run as an SDLP candidate in next May’s Stormont election. The 49-year-old former police constable, who until a year ago served as a UUP councillor, will contest the South Antrim seat. Read more: https://t.co/88muCTyg71
- Sep 22, 202635x their median
Mary Lou McDonald says Irish government ‘cannot be passive observers’ in Drumcree parades dispute https://t.co/S7nd404UUm
- Sep 22, 202623x their median
There have been calls for prayers for a Co Antrim priest who suffered a serious spinal injury following a ‘freak accident’ while on a pilgrimage in Međugorje, Bosnia. Read more: https://t.co/1TaoSNwPZO https://t.co/Bbv6VhLktc
- Sep 23, 202622x their median
‘The most British place in Britain’ - Far-right website urges white GB families to move to Northern Ireland https://t.co/tVqhtrZ1jv
- Sep 22, 202620x their median
The Ulster Orchestra performed a pop-up concert in the concourse of Belfast Grand Central Station to mark the start of new chief conductor Anna Handler's first season. Orchestra bosses said they wanted to reach people who may never have heard a symphony orchestra live as it celebrates its 60th anniversary. 🎥 Rohit Balaji
- Sep 23, 202619x their median
A newly-launched far-right website is urging white families from Britain to move to Northern Ireland, and is offering them advice on how to get social housing. Billed as a guide to “the most British place in Britain,” it tells readers to join the Housing Executive waiting list and come over “sofa surfing with friends or producing a convincing appearance of homelessness.” Read more: https://t.co/mLuCzHl6xB
- Sep 22, 202618x their median
"Should Ireland play? I think history would remember our country more favourably if we had made a stand and pulled out. "What do six Nations League points matter against the lives of thousands? So what if Ireland top the group, will anyone remember that in five years’ time? I doubt it." Andy Watters dissects the ongoing controversy surrounding the Republic of Ireland's Nations League games against Israel. Read more: https://t.co/K05KZCNzQE
- Sep 23, 20269.5x their median
IRA gun used to kill founding member of SDLP connected to eight other shootings https://t.co/y37KcHYFij
- Sep 22, 20269.3x their median
Garvaghy Road residents call for ‘international mediator’ over Drumcree dispute https://t.co/66mAyWUdVT
Ranked by total interactions across everything we have tracked for this account, which is a longer history than the 30-day window the rates above use. The multiple compares each post to this account's own median.
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Reading these numbers
A typical post picks up 4 interactions against 155K followers, an engagement rate of 0.003%. Measured over 58 original posts, its engagement rate beats 10% of 19,933 tracked accounts of a similar size. That is a reason to look at how the audience behaves - reply depth, saves, whether the followers are recent - rather than a conclusion about it on its own. Posts are seen about 3.0K times each, and 0.151% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 1.91% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 2 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 7% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 21:00 UTC, and Wednesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 58 posts sampled, 48% carry an image or video and 90% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 164 interactions, about 41x its own typical post.
- What is The Irish News's engagement rate on X?
- The Irish News (@irish_news) has an engagement rate of 0.003%, based on the median interactions across 58 original posts from the last 30 days against 155,498 followers. Replies, reposts and quote-posts of other people are excluded from that sample.
- Is that a good engagement rate?
- At 0.003%, The Irish News sits below the 10th percentile of the 201,665 accounts in this comparison. Those comparison accounts are all large ones, because our scanning cadence is weighted towards big accounts, so this is a ranking among peers of similar scale rather than a ranking across X.
- Does @irish_news have real engagement?
- Its engagement rate beats 10% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (19,933 accounts), which puts it in the bottom 10% for its size group. Ranking inside a size band matters because engagement rate falls as accounts grow, so a raw rate would mostly re-measure the follower count. It is a starting point for a look at follower quality, not a verdict on it.
- When does @irish_news post?
- Most posts go out around 21:00 UTC, and Wednesday is its busiest day, at roughly 2 posts per day across the measured window.