INTERNET COMMENTERS CAN get a bad rap sometimes.

However they play a big part here on TheJournal.ie, helping to make the site what it is. Every day somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 comments are left on the site, shaping the discussion and kickstarting some lively debates (and despite what some commenters might believe, only a tiny number ever have to be deleted…).

We’ve compiled a list of the 10 comments which received the most thumbs up from other readers this year. As you might expect, many of the most popular comments were among the first posts on a breaking news story, expressing what many people felt about an issue. Some were funny, some insightful and some were sympathetic.

So here’s the 10 comments with the most thumbs up this year (all thumb figures correct as of 20 December). And before you ask – no, we’re not going to do a list of the comments which received the most thumbs down. That would be too cruel.

1. Sarah Butler on the 41-year-old man charged with the rape and murder of Irish woman Jill Meagher in Australia got 2,829 thumbs up:

Hope he rots in hell

2. Chris Massey on the shooting of major gangland figure Eamon Kelly at the start of this month got 1,931 thumbs up:

I think people are more worried about the budget rather than the passing of a gangland criminal, no sympathy here

3. Chris Lynch on the father in Texas who killed a man who tried to sexually abuse his 4-year-old daughter got 1,816 thumbs up:

I would do the exact same thing in that situation and I would imagine every father in the world would too.

4. John Dobermann on National Text Your Ex Day got 1,756 thumbs up:

Wrong:
Me: Happy national text your ex day!
Her: You’re breaking up with me?

5. Rossa O’Connor on the former Dragon’s Den contestant who won a contract to make watches for premier league football clubs got 1,606 thumbs up:

I wish him every success, well done!

6. Mark Power on the rally held in Ballyconnell in support of the Quinn family got 1,597 thumbs up:

Baaaaaa Baaaaaa Baaaaaaa, good little sheep. Blest for the Quinn’s. MORONS

7. Kevin Hunt on how nine people were stabbed at the Swedish House Mafia concert in Dublin’s Phoenix Park got 1,541 thumbs up:

Its a sad state of affairs when you cant just go to a concert and presume your own safety

8. Darragh Gibbons on Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who took her own life after a hoax call to the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated, got 1,436 thumbs up:

Aside from the Aussies, what about the responsibility that should be taken by the ragtops who sensationalised the story beyond recognition. The same sites are now feasting on the poor girls death. Makes me sick to my stomach. May she rest in peace.

9. Gerard on a 69-year-old woman who said she was humiliated over a colostomy bag ordeal on a Ryanair flight got 1,373 thumbs up:

Unbelievable, my mother has a colostomy bag and I would dread to think she would be treated like this. Shame on them

10. Jason Doyle on Shannon and Erin Gallagher, the teenage sisters who took their own lives in Donegal, got 1,370 thumbs up:

What an absolute terrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers with these poor girls parents, god love them all.

(Photos: Julien Behal/PA Wire, Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock, Daniel Law/PA Archive/Press Association Images, Screengrab/RTE, Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland, Niall Carson/PA Wire, Jonathan Brady/PA Wire, Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland, Facebook)

Read: Here’s the 10 most read articles on TheJournal.ie in 2012 >

Read: Here’s our top 10 most shared articles on Facebook in 2012 >

Read: Here’s our 10 most tweeted articles in 2012 >

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