Do Irish people live up to their reputation for being friendly?

Maria Stefan (Hungary) working in Temple Bar, Dublin

"People here are very friendly and polite. I have lived in Austria and Germany too and my experience there has not been very good. German people are very rude, but here people are more friendly."

Tomas Hudacek (Czech Rep) working in Dublin

"Irish people are more friendly than people at home in the Czech Republic, but then loads of the people here are foreigners. I work as a waiter in a nice place now. I have worked in nightclubs before and that was a different story. But then, no matter where you are, when people are drunk they are never very nice."

Tony Roe (Dublin)

"We taxi drivers are the essence of friendliness. But I think with the Celtic Tiger, people have got much more narky and unfriendly. Then if you put alcohol into the equatio. . . we are always on the front line when people come out of the pubs."

Trish Lambe (Dundalk)

"I used to think that it had got bad here. But I've just been in England and when I came back here I thought that people were friendlier. I think that people are more aware of a perceived lack of friendliness. You can tell that people are now being trained in the service industry and people have got friendlier."

Stephen Limbrick (Britain)

"The taxi drivers are fantastic here, they're always having a laugh. We were in a bar yesterday and the staff were really friendly and they even started having a water-fight with each other. It was so funny. We had a great time."