The Grand Old Lady etc. has launched a competition to find the best place to live in Ireland.

So, I'm thinking, where have I heard that before ..? Oh yeah! On my own website www.likeplace.ie! We've been logging Ireland's best places to live for over 3 years.

On the positive side, I must say I like the comprehensive manner of the IT's approach & their expert panel. (I wish I had their resources.) They ask for a lot of information from entrants, which should ensure only the committed will submit an opinion.

However, surely everyone who enters an opinion to this competition must by nature be very passionate about where they live.

So what about dissenting voices? 

All the entrants may think that [*enter name of town*] is a great place with great facilities, but is that representative of the community in general?

At least LikePlace.ie allows people to say why their hometown is NOT a good place to live. If fact we have a list of the worst places to live in Ireland too.

(Admittedly that makes our site open to abuse and we have had our fair share of negative spamming - as a result we have had to discontinue rating for several places - interestingly all in Kerry.)

When complete, it will be interesting to see if the IT's final list of the best places corresponds with our own - and if not why not. Overall the big winner will the audience we seek to serve - those looking to find a great place to live in Ireland.