IRELAND’S 40 shades of green does not include the all-important “eco-green” and that is severely tarnishing its reputation with tourists according to travel bible, the Lonely Planet.

Almost 28,000 suspected drink drivers were brought before the courts last year, it was revealed today.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern last night defended his home town after Dundalk was branded “tough, dour and charmless” in the new Irish edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook.