Good news lads; we’re all getting taller

The average Irish fella is now 8cm taller than the average lad a century ago, but we are falling behind our European neighbours.

Looking at the likes of Paul O’Connell or Devin Toner, you can see that there’s no shortage (pardon the pun) of big Irish lads knocking around. But away from the sporting realm, the rest of us are getting bigger too. Maybe not second row big but still. Research published in the Oxford Economics Paper journal, and carried in today’s Irish Times, reveals that the average Irish man is now 8cm, three and a half inches in old money, taller than a 100 years ago. The average height for an Irish man born in 1980 is now 5’9” (1.76cm), while our great grandfathers were just over 5’5” on average. But it is not all good news. The study looked at 15 European countries and every other nation is growing faster than us. The average European male born in 1980 is now 11cm, or four and a half inches taller, than his 19th Century counterpart. No reason for this discrepancy is suggested but the report’s author, Prof Timothy Hatton, says that Irish data between 1880 and 1950 wasn’t very good so that might explain it a little (no pun intended). We’ll blame the weather…