Poor show for Offaly in survey of most liked places in Ireland

An online survey has ranked Edenderry the third least liked town in Ireland and Offaly the least liked of 23 counties rated. The survey entitled 'Zeitgeist 2011' collected 6,231 ratings about life in Ireland this year on website likeplace.ie. Bottom of the list of liked towns was Dublin, with an average score of just 2.8 out of 5 across a range of topics. Shannon came second on the list of least liked towns, with Edenderry taking third place with a score of just 2.9 out of 5. The best liked town in the country was revealed as Carlingford in Co. Louth, with a score of 4.5 out of 5. Birr scored 3.5 on the same scale, while Tullamore came in just below that at 3.4. Offaly came in last in a league table of 23 rated counties in the country. A total of 102 ratings for the county were taken into account, which gave the county an overall score of 3.5 out of 5. Offaly scored highest when it came to schools and a sense of community, with an average score of 3.8 out of 5. Economy and jobs in the county was given a score of just 3 however, as was the cost of living. A score of 3.6 was given in the category of law and order, 3.5 in the local services category and 3.7 in the environment category. A general opinion section gave the county a score of 3.6 out of 5. A full list of results and comments are available on www.likeplace.ie.