Why are the Irish still so upbeat?

Trinity College is running a series of fascinating experiments to determine our true levels of happiness, writes Jonathan deBurca Butler

HAPPINESS. To millions of Americans its pursuit is a constitutional right. According to John Lennon it was a warm gun. While to TV-watchers in the 1970s and ’80s it was a cigar called Hamlet.

Today, defining happiness is probably harder than ever. Advertising tells us that our happiness depends on having this or looking like that. But by the time you are old enough to realise that happiness is not dependent on how much you spend you’re so laden down with debt that you are the opposite of where you thought you’d be — unhappy. So what exactly is happiness? Is it the same for everyone? And why, if we are to believe the pollsters, are Irish people so consistently content?