25.05.2009
Irish in top three of the moaning league
It’s official, the Irish have been named among the top moaners in Europe – only the Brits moan more than us.
Irish people spend on average 9 hours 28 minutes moaning each week – that is more than 20 days in any given year. The average Irish person whines about something four times a day, for almost 22 minutes each time.
Bad weather topped their list of daily groans, followed by feeling tired. Traffic and our daily workload took the third and fourth place in the gripe charts. | | Paddy Murphy, of Uniroyal Tyres Ireland which carried out the poll of 4,000 Europeans, to mark the 40th anniversary of the company’s Rain Tyre said: ''Irish people generally have a reputation for being happy-go-lucky, so we were surprised when our Europe-wide survey put us in second place in terms of the top moaning countries. With it raining here on average every second day, it is no wonder that bad weather came out top of the list of moans”. The European-wide research revealed that those living in France moan for just five hours and 46 minutes a week, with the traffic and expensive train service the most popular subjects to complain about.
The Germans came third, whinging about the busy roads for an average of almost five and a half hours a week.
Residents in Spain spend four hours and 38 minutes a week grumbling about the workload while those in Holland moan for just over four hours mostly about their neighbours. And while 61 per cent of Irish people complain because they really are annoyed, 11 per cent admitted they do it simply because they enjoy it. One in three even admitted to moaning about something just to get a conversation started. Just under 70 per cent also reckon they whine more than normal if the weather is bad.
Paddy Murphy added: ‘’Poor weather has a lot to answer for as it really affects people’s moods. A lot of people moan and worry about driving in wet weather which is why we have been making tyres for four decades which give motorists confidence especially when driving in rainy conditions. Although there are other countries in Europe with similar weather to Ireland and the UK, it seems it affects the Irish and the Brits the most”. It also emerged that peak grumbling time is 10.37am on a Monday morning.
A majority of both men and women agree that women are more likely to moan than men (59 percent). “On the basis of our position in the moaning charts, it looks like Joe Duffy’s programme will be in business for a long time to come…”, concluded Murphy.
Ireland’s Top Gripes
1. Bad weather
2. Feeling tired
3. Traffic
4. Workload
5. Rubbish TV
6. Colleagues
7. Annoying boss
8. How messy the home is
9. Slow internet connections
10. Recession/credit crunch
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