Large chunks of the country have been shrouded in grey skies, especially in the east, and Dublin in particular.

However, the weather is a lot brighter in the west, with Belmullet in Mayo recording 14.4 hours of sunshine over the past week.

According to Matthew Martin, a meteorologist with Met Éireann, an easterly air flow has been moving across the country over the last week or so, which is to blame for the cloud build up.

“Basically over the last week we’ve had an easterly air flow moving over the country,” Martin said.

“A lot of cloud built up over the Irish sea and brought gloomy and cloudy conditions.”

According to Alan O’Reily of Carlow Weather, this is only the third time this has happened.

“It’s not that unusual to get under cloud but the fact it’s constant is unusual,” he said.

According to the latest forecast, the gloomy weather will persist for the remainder of the week, but sunnier times are on the horizon.

“Saturday looks like we might see some good sunny spells for many areas,” Martin said.

Talking with a local radio station, Psychologist Leslie Shoemaker said that Ireland needs to chirp up and take a leaf out of book of other sun-restricted nations.

"The Nordic’s have a great attitude towards it, because they talk about how there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes, [they have a] huge emphasis on getting outdoors," she said.