Ireland squeezed out of top 10 in rankings for world peace

IRELAND has dropped in the rankings of the world peace due to our “severe economic and political crises”, according to an annual global peace index carried out by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Ireland, however, was still 11th place on the index, between Slovenia in ninth and Qatar at 12th. Last year Ireland was sixth on the index, which ranks 153 countries on 23 indicators of peacefulness.

Iceland returned to the top spot as most peaceful country in the world, after dropping in the rankings in 2009 and 2010 because of violent demonstrations linked to the collapse of its financial system.