Irony

Sometimes the meaning of words is hard to explain without an example. The word irony is one which tends to confuse so here is an example.

Former home secretary Charles Clark annouced a knife anmesty to start on the 24 of may this year in the UK. This was meant to be an opportunity for people to hand in weapons ( such as knives, swords etc) without fear of reprisal. However since the annoncement and even during the amnesty it seems the knife attacks on citizens have increased rather than decreased. Not a week has gone by since february that someone hasnt been attacked. See here or here or here or here for more details.
So in short irony is the aspect of a situation that is odd because it is the opposite of what one would expect.