Many visitors claim to laugh more during a holiday in Ireland than in six months back home.
Take the upcoming St Patrick's festival in Dublin, where there will be a laugh a minute every day from March 12 to 17 during festivities that include non-stop comedy, dances, musical gigs and street theatre.
With a Dublin pass one gets free entry to 27 of the city's top attractions, plus a free airport transfer.
The savings are 20 percent off two, three and six-day cards.
In 2008 I ended up perpetually in a state of laughter during the gigs and some wild dances, and had I listened to the DJ, I would have jumped out of my skin and danced around in my bones with joy.
The St Pat's Parade and festival drew more than 500 000 people in 2008, and new romances and friendships flourished.
As Guinness brewery is 250 years old, it is celebrating St Patrick's Day with Ireland's biggest party.
There are 250 entertainers lined up, so book early.
After all that fun, I fly south on Aer Lingus, whose Irish air hostesses claim to "walk on air" for passengers.
Once in the countryside I stay on an Irish farm bed and breakfast to recuperate.
But some London visitors go to Ireland by car via the Welsh countryside, and catch a ferry from Pembroke to Wexford (four hours) or Holyhead to Dublin (two hours).
If you choose Wexford, try its quaint main street for fun and foot-stomping music.
The region has more days of sunshine than elsewhere in Ireland and hosts one of Europe's finest opera festivals.
Don't leave the area without having fresh seafood in Kilmore Quay.
As Ireland is easy to criss-cross in hours, I like to head west into the countryside to the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula and enjoy its lush scenery and tiny villages with singing pubs and good grub.
For dinner in Waterville recently we had a whole salmon caught just an hour earlier.
The next day we stopped for tea and a sticky bun in the Killarney Lake area, and after a wonderful walk we settled for lunch in Tralee… with a rose for my wife.
Keen to be with family in Galway for the festival, we hurried on… slowly.
We wined, dined, danced and laughed with family till well after midnight and the big band kept playing.
This festival was rated by the London Times as among "Earth's 12 best entertainments".
Some interesting Irish diaspora news indicates there are about 50-million in America.
In South Africa there were 20 000 by 1900, growing to 40 000 now.
It's no wonder former Irish president Mary Robinson simplified things by declaring: "With one drop of Irish blood in you and if you feel Irish, you are Irish."
I may add that shedding a tear during the rugby song The Call of Ireland is very Irish and could explain some of the daft things you may do, like myself.
Many Irish believe God judges who goes to heaven, but St Patrick judges the Irish. By fluke I was born on St Patrick's Day and duly named Eamon Dermot after the first Irish president.
My da (father) believed with all his beautiful Irish heart that someday St Patrick would favour me, so ta, da - I love your lovely ways.
Ireland is full of characters.
In South Africa the Irish produced special people like a Mr Cowie, who killed a leopard bare-handed, and Michael Hogan, who captured a Spanish brig off Peru and brought it to Table Bay.
The most strange, curious and brilliant of all was a visionary, John Dunne, many of whose dreams (unfortunately) came true.
In 1902 he dreamt a volcano on Martinique Island would blow killing 4 000, which subsequently happened.
In 1913 he dreamt the Flying Scotsman train went off the Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland - that came true the next year. From studying the flight of albatrosses on Blaauwberg beach, he designed an ingenious airplane that was used by Allied forces during World War I.
The Irish are natural comics and love to dress up daftly on any occasion. At the last St Paddy's day a lunatic dressed me up as St Patrick, but it went to my head as I waved my staff and declared St Patrick's Day a public holiday in future. Of course I was sentenced to run in the Irish three-legged race down Long Street, then stand on one leg while downing a pint of green St Pat's beer.
Irish corporates have a sense of fun too. One Christmas, Ryanair painted huge Father Christmases with sledges and reindeer along the length of their planes' fuselages.
As they flew merrily across the skies people cheered and airports gave the planes VIP treatment (I ask you).
Christmas spirit was back among parents, children waved wildly and the elderly knowingly said only the Irish could do something so madly beautiful.
It's almost St Paddy's Day and I'm off to have my hair dyed green!
