My position:
I'll agree that irony can be more than its strictest sense, namely to make a point by saying the opposite, just for the sake of contrast. I can accept that irony can also be the way things just happen, on a few conditions: if there's a narrative context that can be interpreted as if it were almost designed.
For something to be called ironic, there should be some kind of thought, intention or deliberate action before it. I don't think rain can be ironic just because it's not expected. In my opinion, there has to be more of a setup, the result of a decision.
1. The couple has travelled all the way from a really humid place to a some place completely arid just to avoid rain at all cost. On this particular day, however, there's sunshine for the first day in ages in their hometown, while the current destination experiences rain for the first time in recorded history.
2. The husband is a meteorologist who has always had a knack for saying exactly when there's a rainstorm coming, but on his wedding day he's of course not "on duty" so he neglects all the signs and the rest is history.
Now those would be fine cases of irony
When it comes to 'literally' I'm a bit torn. Just because it's commonly used as an intensifier ("I literally died out there!"), which of course is just natural, idiomatic English, I'm not sure the definition of the word should have 'virtually' or 'figuratively' appended to it. But anyway, there's no way to stop people from using 'literally' in its opposite meaning now, so that struggle is probably futile.
I'll agree that irony can be more than its strictest sense, namely to make a point by saying the opposite, just for the sake of contrast. I can accept that irony can also be the way things just happen, on a few conditions: if there's a narrative context that can be interpreted as if it were almost designed.
For something to be called ironic, there should be some kind of thought, intention or deliberate action before it. I don't think rain can be ironic just because it's not expected. In my opinion, there has to be more of a setup, the result of a decision.
1. The couple has travelled all the way from a really humid place to a some place completely arid just to avoid rain at all cost. On this particular day, however, there's sunshine for the first day in ages in their hometown, while the current destination experiences rain for the first time in recorded history.
2. The husband is a meteorologist who has always had a knack for saying exactly when there's a rainstorm coming, but on his wedding day he's of course not "on duty" so he neglects all the signs and the rest is history.
Now those would be fine cases of irony
When it comes to 'literally' I'm a bit torn. Just because it's commonly used as an intensifier ("I literally died out there!"), which of course is just natural, idiomatic English, I'm not sure the definition of the word should have 'virtually' or 'figuratively' appended to it. But anyway, there's no way to stop people from using 'literally' in its opposite meaning now, so that struggle is probably futile.