The above answers do an excellent job of treating situational irony, so I'll deal with dramatic irony.
Dramatic irony occurs when the reader/audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does. The one main effect is that it gives the reader a sense of superiority, or detached superiority. The reader not only seemingly discovers what is revealed, but feels superior for doing so.
An example of dramatic irony is in the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth Act 1.6, when King Duncan and Banquo describe Macbeth's castle and the atmosphere around it with words like sweetly, pleasant, and delicate. The reader knows something they don't: that Macbeth and his wife are inside plotting to assassinate Duncan. Macbeth's castle is anything but a place of sweetness, pleasantness, or delicateness. This is dramatic irony.
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