In the third of our series of four articles on the performance of Irish Sport on social media in March 2026, we are focusing on Instagram.
This data is supplied by our partners Olytico.
Read about our introduction to this month and the details from Irish sporting bodies on X
Read about the significant return to favour of Facebook
Instagram activity rose 41% from February to March, with posts climbing to 4,608 and engagements jumping 70% to 4,342,561.
Similar to the resurgence of fellow Meta-owned channel Facebook, this is also an increase from where we were twelve months ago, when the number of posts was 3,577, and the number of engagements was 4.23 million.
Most of the major accounts in Rugby and the GAA dipped a bit, but perhaps there was only so much oxygen for sporting engagements, with the Ireland Football account seeing a lift from 3,841 engagements per post to 7,113 and Northern Ireland’s football account also adding 30 per cent to 1,390.
March 2026 Highlights on Instagram
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Specific Highlights
The Northern Ireland Football League (694, +15%) was once again the most active account on the platform, as it was on Facebook and X, followed by the
League of Ireland (689, +16%) and the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division (239), completing a clean sweep for football.
Cycling Ireland (21, +163%) had their measuring tape out as Conn McDunphy beat Liam Crowley by mere millimetres after 130km at the Des Hanlon Memorial.
View this post on Instagram
Athletics Ireland (193, +154%) took us behind the scenes as Kate O’Connor claimed the Bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships, in an example of the kind of exclusive content that really engages supporters and casual fans.
View this post on Instagram
The Ladies Gaelic Football Association (198, +108%) penned a Love Letter to their sport featuring Brid Stack, Niamh Fahey, Aishling Sheridan, and Leah Caffrey.
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Ireland Football (7,113, +57%) topped the average engagement per post chart, with their most engaged with post setting the scene, and the journey the team and the fans had been on before the FIFA World Cup play-off in Prague. Well worth a look to refresh your memory on what might have been…
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Irish Rugby (5,565, +77%) in second on this metric saw Robert Baloucoune claim the Men’s Six Nations ‘Rising Star’ Award, and the GAA (2,969, -40%) in third celebrated the great and the good of the 2026 AIB Club Championships.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Paralympics Ireland (83, +108%) saw Shauna Bocquet produce her best ever performance to become the Berlin Half Marathon Champion, and IWA Sport (56, +81%) celebrated as Ruairi Devlin set a new Lifetime Best with 127kg on his second attempt as he competed in the Up to 88kg Category at the European Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
The NIFL (2,774) topped the March engagements-per-1,000-followers metric, just ahead of the Ireland Football and the SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division Accounts.
Irish Rugby’s Triple Crown trophy lift post was the most engaged piece of content on the platform in March, generating over 65,000 engagements.
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X Analysis – Tuesday
Facebook Analysis – Tuesday
Instagram Analysis – Wednesday
TikTok Analysis – Wednesday
If you would like to be part of the Sport for Business community and be added to the list, email us today and let’s see what is possible. If you would like a more detailed analysis of your social media activity, contact ross@olytico.com
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