The same people who correctly identified the WAGs culpability for England's failure at World Cup 2006 have pinpointed Paddy Barnes' tweeting as the real reason he lost his last 16 bout today.
He was surprisingly beaten by Samuel Carmona Heredia - who in classic style was referred to as 'the Spaniard'.
Needless to say, Paddy's gleefully mischievous twitter account, of which Rory McIlroy is a regular target, was quickly proffered as a reason for the loss. Others who referenced Paddy's tweeting weren't so much blaming it for the loss as engaging in the normal schadenfreude.
As is normally the case, one often only gets wind of these controversies by the time the backlash is already in full swing.
And so, it can be hard to actually unearth the guilty tweets, buried as they are under the far more numerous and heavily retweeted offerings giving out about the guilty tweets.
During previous online controversies which were rather more serious in nature, this writer found it quite impossible to find tweets of an offensive nature, but couldn't stop stumbling upon moralistic tweets giving out about said offensive tweets.
But showing true investigative journalist flair, worthy we believe of a Pulitzer Prize or two, we have dug some of them out.
Maybe paddy barnes should have concentrated on his boxing rather dan tweeting
— Peter Smyth (@PeterSmyth5) August 8, 2016
Paddy Barnes looks a right eejit now after all his tweeting
— Michèal Lundy (@lundycorofin) August 8, 2016
Should concentrate more on boxing than tweeting Paddy Barnes ?
— Phil (@PhilFinaghy) August 8, 2016
@McIlroyRory is going to batter paddy Barnes , I'm sorry but all that tweeting and mick acting shows he wasn't focused ! And he got beat
— Ind.Clare Suporters (@ClareSupporter) August 8, 2016
Paddy Barnes owes the Irish people nothing, still thjnk he gets too distracted outside the ring with all this Twitter nonsense,that's life
— Fintan Cox (@FintanCox) August 8, 2016
Reckon Paddy Barnes will lay off Twitter for a while! Embarrassing
— Brendan Donaghy (@BrendanDonaghy) August 8, 2016
Paddy Barnes has been beaten... Maybe he should have been more focused on the boxing rather than tweeting... #RioOlympics2016
— Paddy Murphy (@PaddyMurphyy) August 8, 2016
Joanne Cantwell somewhat apologetically brought up the matter in the RTE post-mortem in a 'I'm only saying what they're saying' manner.
Bernard Dunne and Michael Carruth correctly noted that Paddy has always gone it at hard on the twitter front and it didn't stop him winning medals in London and Beijing.
Another website - also composing the obligatory twitter reaction - grouped this tweet from the Mirror's Pat Nolan among those earlier tweets slagging Paddy for his twitter use, though we are fairly sure Pat was deploying sarcasm on this occasion.
Some tweeters were ferocious in their defence of their Barnes, with one even mocking his attackers for their alleged lack of sexual experience.
I can only assume that the Spaniard was tweeting less than Paddy Barnes. That's what wins or loses fights at this level. #Rio2016
— Pat Nolan (@pat_nolan) August 8, 2016
A few more.
I'm generally not one for blocking people but had to do it to clowns criticising 2 time Olympic Medallist Paddy Barnes for tweeting!!
— Colin Byrne (@Colinsboxing) August 8, 2016
First person to write a column on Paddy Barnes' tweeting hurting him gets a gold star and the distinction of being a first class gobshite.
— Conor Philpott (@cphilpott95) August 8, 2016
Paddy Barnes was tweeting quite a lot when he won his last bronze so don't blame social media for his loss! The Spanish fighter was great.
— John Bowe (@JohnBowe) August 8, 2016
? for Paddy Barnes... And even more ? for anyone who thinks he lost because of a few tweets... Stay classy, Twitter ?
— Amanda Connolly (@tweets_amanda) August 8, 2016
Paddy Barnes is one of the best sportsman weve ever produced and he gets a slagging off a loada virgins for showing a personality on Twitter
— Niall (@NiallOC_) August 8, 2016
To our mind, Martyn Rosney of Edelman communications raised the most important point, and one often missed in the discussion.
If Paddy Barnes spent more time tweeting and less time boxing he would have a lot more followers.
— Martyn Rosney (@rosney) August 8, 2016
