Pessimistic Irish 'still worth a visit'

The Irish lack self-esteem despite a veneer of "garrulous sociability and self-deprecating twaddle", according to the latest edition of the Lonely Planet which has just been published.

The best-selling guide book says Irish people's reputation for having an "easygoing, affable nature is justified", but our reputation for friendliness is mostly a manifestation of our desire to chat – and our lack of self-esteem is our "dark secret".

The guide says the pub remains the number one attraction for visitors to Ireland and the focus of Irish life.

Ireland has not lost its "mojo" despite years of recession, says the guide: "the good times may have gone, but Dublin still knows how to have a good time".

While the book lavishes praise on the capital, it criticises the city's best-known tourist attractions, notably the Book of Kells and Temple Bar.

The Celtic Tiger may be over but Ireland remains a country transformed for the better over the last two decades, it says.

The writers opine that it may be "ridiculously crude and simplistic" to suggest the Irish are used to hard knocks, but, nevertheless, "there is some truth in it".

The Irish are "fatalistic and pessimistic to the core", which is why they have accepted their economic fate more readily than the Greeks, who have rioted in the streets.

While suspicious of praise and tending not to believe anything nice that's ever said about them, the Irish "wallow in false modesty like a sport" and are fond of the "peculiar art of self-deprecation".

Begrudgery is also regarded as a national sport and the writers find it amusing that Bono is subject to more criticism in Ireland than he is elsewhere.

The book has two pieces of advice for travellers. Don't use expressions like "top o' the morning to you" or "begorrah", which belong in 1950s Hollywood movies, and do buy your round. The book says "everything good about Ireland can be found in County Cork".

Galway city has "an overlaying vibe of fun and frolic that's addictive" but it is also "a very rainy city, even by Irish standards" and Derry city is a "pleasant surprise to many visitors" even if it is not pretty. The book is less than kind to Armagh city, which has "a dreary, rundown feel to it".

Larne is "lacking in the charm department", while Letterkenny has been "ruined by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger era".

The Lonely Planet series are the best-selling travel guides in the world. The Irish edition is written by both Irish and foreign writers.

Its co-ordinating author is the journalist and broadcaster Fionn Davenport, who contributes to The Irish Times.