The survey by Eurobarometer also shows 85% of Irish people have not been to the ballet or opera in the last year while 60% have not visited a museum or gallery. By contrast, the survey shows, Irish people are enthusiastic movie-goers and read more books than any other country in Europe.

Loughlin Deegan, the head of the Dublin Theatre Festival, said he regarded the figure for Irish attendance at the theatre as "high". The festival had "broken all box office records this year", he said.

"It took in over 1m in sales which is 30% up on last year.

Attendance figures have also exceeded our target of 65,000. Theatre audiences are healthy and there is a growing demand."

Although two out of three Irish people think culture is "important", this is well below the EU average of 77%. The Germans, Danes, Belgians and the Austrians are the only other nations which attach such low levels of importance to culture.

Nevertheless, three out of four Irish people have read at least one book in the last year and almost 40% have read five or more books . . . ahead of the EU average of 71% and 37%, respectively. We really come into our own when it comes to the cinema with two out of three (66%) Irish people saying they went to the cinema at least once last year.

Only the Danes, at 69%, are more avid cinema-goers than the Irish.

Irish people top the league when it comes to attending sporting events with 62% saying they went to a sports fixture at least once compared to an EU average of 41%. Only the Austrians, at 57%, come anywhere near Ireland's love affair with sport.

When it comes to participating in amateur artistic activities, the Irish hold their own against their EU colleagues. Underlining Ireland's reputation as the land of 'craic', more Irish than the EU average have "played a musical instrument" (14%), "sung" (16%) and "acted" (5%) in the last year.

This is above the EU average of 10%, 15% and 3% respectively.