The poll, which interviewed a sample of 1,033 adults aged over 18 years of age in February 2015, also found that three in ten Irish people crave bacon and cabbage while travelling abroad and that 54% of Irish people plan to tuck into some bacon and cabbage on or around St Patrick's Day.

Bord Bia conducted the poll to coincide with the launch of the Bord Bia Ham and Bacon campaign, which runs from Monday 23 February to Sunday 22 March. In the run up to St Patrick's Day on 17 March, the campaign encourages consumers to switch to choosing Bord Bia Quality Assured ham and bacon.

A spokesperson for the campaign said "Our campaign centres around encouraging consumers to switch to choosing Quality Assured Ham and Bacon so that they know it's traceable, from the farm to the fork."

Irish rugby legend Sean O'Brien and celebrated Irish chef Catherine Fulvio attended the launch of the campaign this afternoon with O'Brien commenting, “I fancy myself as a bit of a foodie and love to try out new recipes. Ham and bacon always feature strongly in my cooking and I always choose ham and bacon with the Quality Mark when shopping. It’s no surprise to me that bacon and cabbage is top of the pecking order when it comes to most popular traditional Irish meals.”

Teresa Brophy, Consumer and Trade Marketing Manager at Bord Bia, added that a Kantar Worldpanel report carried out in January 2015 found that 95% of Irish households regularly buy bacon and that, as a nation, we spend €196 million on it annually, representing an increase of 3% from last year.