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It’s official – hope and happiness are running out for the Irish

Ireland bottom of the Western Europe happiness index

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, January 4, 2012, 7:59 AM

Updated Wednesday, January 4, 2012, 9:36 AM

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Ireland bottom of the Western Europe happiness index: Shoppers on Grafton Street, Dublin city center

Photo by Google Images

Ireland is top of the world again – but only when it comes to unhappiness.

The country’s image as a happy-go-luck home to fun lovers has been shattered by a new international poll.

The annual WIN-Gallup survey, run every New Year since 1977, reflects the sombre mood of the recession hit nation.

As the Irish Independent reports, Ireland is running low on happiness and hope at the moment with the country bottom of Western Europe’s happiness index.

The poll found that a quarter of all Irish respondents are ‘very unhappy’ although 45 percent said they were happy.The survey, conducted amongst more than 52,000 people in 58 countries, found that the remaining 30 percent of Irish people said they were neither happy nor unhappy.

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The overall figures give Ireland a ‘net happiness’ score of just 20 percent, half the global net-happiness score of 40 per cent and well below the overall score for Western Europe of 56 percent.

Only four countries in Eastern Europe - Romania, Serbia, Lithuania and Georgia – scored less than Ireland.

In the Irish results, those aged 35-54 were more unhappy than other age groups and women were less happy than men.

The highest net happiness level was found in Holland at 77 percent. The survey says that 68 percent of Spanish people are happy with high levels of happiness also recorded in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.

Iceland’s figures were also high despite the collapse of their economy in 2007 with 73 percent feeling happy and only seven percent unhappy.

Nster.com

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IrelandNorth | Jan 06, 2012, 08:05 AM EST

I'm not surprised. With the relentless press and media reporting of how baad things are, they've finally succeeded in depressing everyone, and boosting prozac sales. My new years resolution is to stop reading the partitionist press, and embracing some positive thinking.

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Scotchtommy | Jan 05, 2012, 02:54 AM EST

Cillowen.I read your comment 14 times .The one beginning "That's what friends "and ending "--was his tone".I still don't understand a word of it and can only conclude taht you scored some bad stuff last night

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cillowen | Jan 04, 2012, 11:28 PM EST

That's what friends are for - I always knew the connection that was and is. The propaganda that is so thick that Jews and Italians would be as bold as you please - confront Irish me, asking me what I contributed. A manager no less, in number 1 company, with brazen ridicule, telling me of the half a million (a measly sum) that was shipped to the Irish boyos in that one particular year of the freedom seekers efforts trying to fix the apartheid statelet that such souls were in. How dare they, was his tone.

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cillowen | Jan 04, 2012, 11:25 PM EST

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sirpeter | Jan 04, 2012, 10:28 PM EST

peterson.If you had another brain you would have one.Try not to be an idiot all your life.Economies are much more complicated than just a divorce.Stop been a dumb American.You are Irish American so read up and get with the program.

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Opoets99 | Jan 04, 2012, 08:38 PM EST

You're unhappy? You're unhappy? Try having the dunce Obama as your president. You don't know what unhappiness is!!

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peterson | Jan 04, 2012, 05:27 PM EST

Exiting the EU would be a step ahead. Germany will be running the show anyway. The British would also be wise to do the same.

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rebellin | Jan 04, 2012, 12:50 PM EST

We either get used to the misery, or, exit the Euro, pass a Glass Steagall law to write off toxic "assets" and implement a Hamiltonian Credit System to rebuild the physical economy. That would make everyone happy...except the City of London and Wall St...perfect solution!

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sirpeter | Jan 04, 2012, 12:10 PM EST

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be - Abraham Lincoln.

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FastEddy | Jan 04, 2012, 11:21 AM EST

Stop your whining ... The whole world is over taxed, over spent, over regulated by governments. Until the bulk of governments' non-productive taxation is killed, it will be bleak for the masses, forever. Get over it, get a job, stop throwing bricks and get on with your lives. Until the G-20 reverse course and cut taxes massively and permanently , Ireland (and the US and Canada and Britain and Germany and France and ALL of the rest) will not recover. One bright spot: Mexico! Unemployment is down to 5% or less because Mexico has been stealing wealth from over the border for decades ... and nobody pays taxes there unless they are stupid enough to report income to their government.

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