Optimism and craic make us the world’s friendliest

IRELAND is the world’s friendliest country, and we have “a deliciously dark sense of humour”, according to a best-travel list compiled by guidebook company Lonely Planet.

The Emerald Isle has “a welcoming attitude towards strangers” and we have great craic in boom or bust eras, Lonely Planet said.

Visitors are always “in for a treat” and with “the Troubles” ended, “a cautious optimism reigns supreme, infecting the land once again with the sense that anything’s possible”.