But the ambassador wrote: "An ironic feature of Ireland's success has been the Government's lack of monetary policy tools, remarked Cormack McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Ulster Bank.
And while it's easy to accuse someone — Picasso, in this instance — of "rhetorical poppycock," an ironic feature of this convenient weapon of rhetorical assault means that you cannot aim it at anyone without contemplating a bleeding hole in your own foot.
While every song features at least one line so clumsy it makes you want to chew your knuckles off ("I don't want to be the sweeper of the eggshells that you walk upon", "There's no fundamental excuse for the granted I'm taken for"), the album's biggest hit, Ironic, features nothing but such convolutions.
In December 2009, the comedy website CollegeHumor released a spoof video of the song called "Actually Ironic", featuring actress Sarah Natochenny, in which Patrick Cassels amended the lyrics in a form that would be appropriately ironic.
It seems ironic to feature articles about Joe Califano's antidrug crusade ("Forget the Champagne," Dec. 11, 2000, p. 118) and Paul Craig Roberts' analysis of the loss of civil liberties ("The Death of Due Process," p. 98) in the same issue.
Having convinced themselves and other people they could do more than just sun-dappled, vaguely ironic songs featuring snatches of film dialogue, Summer Camp, the album, feels much broader in scope and scale.
The most ironic and troubling feature of ubiquitous social network use is that people today often feel more alone and alienated than ever before.
It features ironic neon signs that say 'Good Luck' and is run from a windowless eyrie by a cool, middle-aged central European, Samuel Berg Max von Sydoww).
"It's ironic: the very features that make plastic so popular also make it problematic," said Erik Floyd, a former equity analyst who is the treasurer of the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia and who co-founded the plastic project with Mr. Woodring.
Meanwhile, a new trend for cocktail bars in former lavatories, using urinals and toilets as ironic and outlandish features – something that might have come straight out of Nathan Barley – has become as popular as you'd expect it to be in 2015.
The origins of The Game are unknown; a game featuring ironic processing was played by Leo Tolstoy in 1840.
