Slugger had over a million readers in 2017. Thank you :-)

The good ship Slugger had a great 2017. We had over a million readers over the course of the year, 1343 posts, and over 6 million pages of content read.

There were around 115,000 comments posted to the site and we read every single one of them (yeah right).

For those of you who are about to comment that it says one or two thousand readers at the top of most posts how can it be so many? You need to remember that the Slugger archive goes back 15 years. We get a lot of traffic to the archive so collectively it all adds up to a ton of readers.

Here are our top posts of 2017 and the number of readers:

1	The £400m for Infrastructure in the Conservative-DUP agreement will only exacerbate Northern Ireland’s east-west divide	41931
2	Can you all just calm yourselves down a bit about the DUP?	27772
3	“Night vision goggles and a f***ing sword”	24448
4	New Brexit bombshell. Irish citizen rights to live and work in Great Britain may change within a month, even for northerners. The answer so far- take out a British passport if you can, quick	23584
5	EXCLUSIVE POLL: Unionist supporters content with East West post #Brexit border controls…	15591
6	Why Unionism has a problem…	14177
7	Nationalism Bites Back	14117
8	How brexit is destroying NI’s centre ground – and could take the Union with it	13491
9	If not loyalists, who else will do this job?	11885
10	Forecasting the 2017 Assembly Election	11860
11	Sinn Fein’s Unlikely Candidate	11205
12	Check Your (unionist) Privilege	10589
13	If Belfast is a beautiful city, then why plague it with a black sticker pox?	10478
14	Poll records another jump in support for Irish Unity	9666
15	The Death of Unionism	9441
16	LucidTalk Poll on a Border Poll & Irish Unity	9416
17	Fresh evidence from the archives: When did Martin McGuinness actually leave the PIRA?	9383
18	Looks like there may be big changes in the post for tomorrow’s count…	9210
19	Observe the sons of Ulster, marching towards the bin	9079
20	Six reasons why the DUP must be considered on its merits rather than its faults…	8929
21	New DUP MP Pengelly faces choice: Stand up for shared housing residents or side with loyalists targeting ‘The Other’	8380
22	Take Back Control – of our Ulster-Scots histories	8333
23	Latest findings on a border poll	8253
24	Brexit to force Tayto Northern Ireland to stop selling their popular Cheese & Onion Crisps?	8075
25	We have no Executive but we need to face electoral realities	7514
26	You know things are bad when Stacey Dooley comes to town…	7414
27	Sinn Fein running John Finucane in North Belfast	7222
28	Kevin Myers disgraced	7203
29	“The prospect written between the lines of this week’s letter is of Sinn Féin sidelining itself….”	7175
30	A Passport to Nationalist Insurrection?	6994
31	Non-life-threatening injuries and the scandal of shooting children…	6882
32	Martin McGuinness (not Michelle O’Neill) describes the DUP as bigots in Mid Ulster	6841
33	The warm welcome Arlene Foster received at the funeral of Martin McGuinness came as a surprise to many. But not to those who know Derry well.	6834
34	DUP figure calls for boycott of News Letter over RHI revelations	6508
35	Key races to watch in Northern Ireland	6501
36	The DUP are barking up the wrong tree	6422
37	Unionism isn’t ready for a deal anytime soon	6369
38	Lucid Talk poll shows support for special status & strong support for the DUP & Sinn Fein	6364
39	#AE17 – Bring us your Box Figures for 12 noon, 5pm and 9pm?	6343
40	Candidates for #AE17	6320

We thank all our contributors, readers and commentators. Remember anyone can write for Slugger, you don’t need a background in writing. If you are interested contact any of the team. We especially welcome more female writers.

And the best thing about Slugger? We do all this with zero funding. I know the idea of anything happening in Northern Ireland without public funding seems impossible but its true. None of the team gets paid, we do it for the craic. Instead, we rely on you dear reader for support. By being reader supported we can keep our independence.

We want to do more in 2018, more events, more TV stuff, maybe a book… But to do all these we need some funds in the aul kitty.

Go on give us a donation. You will get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Just click the donate button below:

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.