What is Socratic irony?

Essentially, irony occurs when you expect one thing and get the opposite. Because he was a well-known philosopher in ancient Athens, one might approach Socrates with the reasonable expectation that he would have some standard arguments for certain fundamental positions. Instead, he was famous for proclaiming that he knew nothing and that the only wisdom he had was the wisdom to realize how ignorant he was. Was this profession of ignorance a false front? Did he really know and simply say that he didn't know in order to get people to think for themselves (rather than simply attaching themselves to his opinions)? Different scholars read Socrates differently on this point. ----