Happiness, so often invoked as the principal object of political endeavour and the goal of personal life, is surprisingly difficult to define or quantify. "Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so", cautioned John Stuart Mill. But Berthold Brecht insisted: "Man's right on this earth, since his days are few, is to be happy".
All the more credit, then, to Amárach Consulting for the report published yesterday in which they set out to measure Ireland's quality of life. It is based on a variety of attitudinal indices in a public opinion survey and a set of focus groups.
Many of the findings are encapsulated in a table which says happy Irish people live in Leinster outside Dublin, are aged under 30 or over 60, are married, live in rural areas, have average or higher incomes, are healthy, are not stressed, and feel in control of their lives.
Not so happy people live in Dublin, are aged 30-60, are not married, live in urban areas, have below average incomes, are not healthy, feel stressed and do not feel in control of their lives. There is a notable urban-rural difference, while the middle-aged are least happy; and, although 77 per cent of people agree that the general quality of life has improved over the past five years, older and poorer people tend to disagree. This is not surprising in view of the fact, noted in this report, that Ireland has the most unequal distribution of income in the European Union.
While much of this might accord with common understandings, one major finding is more surprising. The survey reveals that reported stress - assumed to be one of the major symptoms of modern life - has actually declined. Along with evidence that Irish people feel more in control of their lives and are comparatively satisfied with them, the researchers conclude that "the Irish people have embraced the Celtic Tiger wholeheartedly, and are enjoying it to the full".
Such a culture of contentment includes more selfishness and little space for altruism beyond the immediate family. This may help to explain wider attitudes, such as the Government's buoyancy going into the election, despite congestion, environmental pressures and rising house prices.
Oscar Wilde noted that "in the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it". It could be an epitaph for the last decade, the report concludes, with a warning that the shadow side of the Celtic Tiger phenomenon - rising inequality - has become more obvious.