‘Irish Times’ online traffic for abortion referendum breaks record

Exit poll data article revealing vote to repeal the Eighth was read almost one million times

Nearly half of the traffic to irishtimes.com on Saturday was from outside Ireland, reflecting the international attention on the outcome of the referendum.
Nearly half of the traffic to irishtimes.com on Saturday was from outside Ireland, reflecting the international attention on the outcome of the referendum.

The article revealing that Ireland had voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment was read approximately one million times, making it the most-read online story in the history of The Irish Times.

Based on exit poll data, Political Editor Pat Leahy’s report was published at 10.01pm on Friday, just after polls closed. It projected that Ireland had voted by a two-to-one majority to liberalise the Republic’s abortion laws.

Weekend pageviews

Pageviews on Saturday, the day of the referendum count, were the second-highest on record for The Irish Times, exceeding the day of counting in the general election in February 2016 and only surpassed by the day Hurricane Ophelia struck Ireland on Monday, October 16th, 2017.

Almost half of traffic to irishtimes.com on Saturday was from outside Ireland, reflecting the international attention on the outcome of the referendum. Irish traffic accounted for 52 per cent of the overall, followed by the UK (14 per cent), the US (13 per cent), Australia (3 per cent ) and Canada (2 per cent), with the remainder from readers in other parts of the world.

Patrick  Logue

Patrick Logue

Patrick Logue is Digital Editor of The Irish Times