Trinity Week to dissect the science of happiness

We all want it, it’s downright elusive, and for John Lennon, it was a “warm gun”. Now Trinity College Dublin will spend the week dissecting the science of happiness.

The programme of events for Trinity Week has been organised by TCD’s Faculty of Health Sciences, but if you have notions of boffins inventing happiness pills or feelgood elixirs, forget it, even if Professor Mary McCarron, the faculty’s dean, says more time should be donated to the science behind feeling happy.

“There has been a lot of emphasis in the past in studying things like stress but we have had less focus on the flipside,” she said. “There is now a new realisation that being happy is a key contributor to physical and mental health.”