In 2011 a list of tags for constituencies being contested in the general election was developed and used widely by political parties, activists and media on twitter and elsewhere.  It was generally a very successful way of using ‘shorthand’ for covering and following the election online given the 40+ (edit 2020 now 39) mini elections that make up an Irish General Election.  If you see them often enough they tend to sink in and were a good way for keeping up with the tallies, counts, evening canvasses and dramas that arose along the way.

In preparation for the 2016 general election I updated the list of #tallytags.  We had several new constituencies both by title and region covered thanks to the changes brought in by the Constituency Commission Report of 2012 and we lost a few with the introduction of 5 seaters in Donegal #dl and Kerry #ky and Tipperary #tipp to name a few.  2020 Update – some of the constituencies have been updated again in terms of boundaries and names – welcome back Laois-Offaly!

The tags below are based on the following simple ‘rules’ I and others have used in previous elections (yes the next election will NOT be the first social media/internet election!)

They should be five characters or less, they should be instantly recognisable alone and/or with the additional tag #ge2020  Car regs, local acronyms and other shorthand all lend to the development. They should not be likely to be used for other events where possible.  And they should be shown to a few others who know a bit about these things and not frighten the horses – so thanks to those who have looked at these and made suggestions over the year. Even though the overall length of tweets has grown less is more people – especially on the day of the count!!

Use them if you want to or don’t… But if you insist on making up your own make sure others will find you!

2020 Update – I don’t expect these to be used by anyone other than myself!