HAPPY IN UNHAPPINESS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1908, Page 6

HAPPY IN UNHAPPINESS.

THE IRISH PARADOX. The farmer is said to be never happy unless ho is unhappy, and a similar disposition is attributed to the Irishman, but the one paradox is different from the other. "It is a most extraordinary thing, but the Ijish are the happiest people in the world," was a comment made to a , Post representative to-day by Archdeacon Dovoy, who spent some weeks iv -"the most distressful country'V recently. He remarked that the very wet summer had made tho harvest very disappointing in many parts cf Ireland, but the people were , cheerful ; they could, not be dppresscd. ' "Ireland is looking/Veil all the same," he said, and his wordd made the interviewer .see a picture of an Irishman fitLing the words of a classic, a strong man standing smiling among the ruins of the world. The Irishman's gift of seeing something droll even in his own misfortunes seems to keep his mind and body plump, even when the crops fall far short of expectations. He has an advantage over even' the Wanganui fasters. Tliey appear to batten on air ; tho Irishman fattens on his humour, and, of course, has some fun in the process. The archdeacon mentioned that America" no longer lured the Irish away in big battalions. For some time the "glitter has been wearing off the gold that called across the Atlantic, and the recant financial crisis further discouraged intending emigrants from putting their trust in the United States. The figures quoted about the movement of the Irish to America are deceptive, states the archdeacon. Many of the Irish, who went away long ago, take a trip to Ireland in the summer for a holiday, and when they return to- their adopted country they are counted as emigrants