Irony as a word and a concept has been so thoroughly stretched and abused by writers published and unpublished that it is now virtually meaningless, routinely applied to any situation in which one thing bears some relation to another thing. Try it…it’s fun! Ironically, the pope actually was Catholic. Ironically, the bear passed up all the other pastries and chose the bearclaw. “Ironically” can often be replaced with “Wow,” or “Dude, check this out!” with no change in meaning.
