irony of fate

Irony of fate describes when circumstances conspire to produce an outcome that seems mockingly appropriate or cruelly fitting—as if fate itself were making a dark joke.

A firefighter's house burning down, or a safety inspector killed in a workplace accident, exemplifies this pattern.

The phrase suggests events beyond coincidence, implying some cosmic sense of humor: By an irony of fate, the marriage counselor's own divorce became tabloid fodder.