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Thousands of people will celebrate St Patrick’s Day by watching leprechaun porn.

Yes, you read that right.

A new study reveals how online searches for porn relating to the tiny, ginger-bearded men, popular at this time of year, soar by more than 8,000 per cent during the annual Irish event.

And searches for 'St Patrick's Day'-themed footage, 'green-haired' actors and Irish 'redheads' also increase dramatically, according to data from a leading adult website.

Remarkably, 'leprechaun' pornography is searched for online all year round.

However, these searches spiked by a whopping 8,142 per cent last year in the lead up to St Patrick's Day.

And the trend is set to be repeated again this year - starting from yesterday, when searches for 'leprechaun' porn were expected to begin to rise.

The figures, obtained by the Mirror Online, show how many people will be shunning pubs, parties and parades for their laptops on the days surrounding the event.

Last year, searches on Pornhub for ‘St Patrick’s Day’ jumped by 6,177 per cent as people in the UK, Ireland, America and elsewhere chose to mark the occasion in an unusual way.

More specific terms – such as ‘Irish redhead’, ‘Irish cougar’, ‘Celtic’, ‘Clover’ and ‘green hair’ – also saw a large rise from March 14 to March 17, 2015.

(Image: Pornhub)

On St Patrick’s Day itself, searches containing the term ‘Irish’ soared by an astounding 650 per cent, according to the site's Insights team.

Meanwhile searches featuring the words ‘luck’ or ‘lucky’ rose by more than 200 per cent.

Because the site attracts around 20million unique visitors each day, at least thousands – if not, tens of thousands – of people were responsible for these increased searches.

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Strikingly, misspellings on the site were also higher than normal during the Irish celebration – as revellers drunkenly returned home and went online.

A site spokesman told the Mirror Online: “We checked to see what search terms increase significantly in the days surrounding St Patrick’s Day.

(Image: Getty)

“Believe it or not, some people do search 'leprechaun' throughout the year, but it goes up 8,142 per cent and 'St Patrick’s Day' goes up 6,177 per cent.”

He added that searches for Irish and leprechaun-related pornography will typically increase on a daily basis this week - before reaching a peak on Thursday.

Read more:Leprechauns didn't wear green and six other bizarre facts

They will then ‘return to normal levels’ on Friday, he said.

Last year, the site released similar data on St Patrick’s Day, showing how traffic in Northern Ireland and Ireland soared by 11 per cent and five per cent respectively on the big day.

However, in England, Scotland and Wales – where the event is not celebrated as a bank holiday – there was not a significant increase in general visits.