GIVE PEACE A CHANCE ON YOUR TRAVELS

THE Global Peace Index has issued its latest report.

I suspect you won’t be surprised to read that this year’s results show the average level of global peacefulness has deteriorated by 0.07 per cent. In fact you may have thought — like me — that it would have deteriorated by a greater margin.

But the good news is that Ireland is on the list as one of the safest, most peaceful countries to live in or visit.

The full list of the top ten countries is:

1. Iceland; 2. New Zealand; 3. Denmark; 4. Portugal; 5. Slovenia; 6. Austria; 7. Switzerland; 8. Ireland; 9. Czech Republic; 10. Canada.

Of course, safety or peacefulness rarely features that high on a list when you’re deciding to go on holiday. The two most visited countries in the world, France and Italy, are at position 55 and 32 respectively, while Spain is at position number 31, just marginally safer than the UK, which languishes at 33.

So it looks as if you want to have a peaceful holiday, forget about the Louvre and head for Louth, or never mind St Peter’s in Rome, but take yourself off to St Mel’s in Longford (above).