Is our society adequately addressing loneliness and rural isolation?

Our man Frank on a reader’s views on rural isolation; The All-Ireland SFC finally warms up; The scams continue… but are the choc ice’s days numbered?

It’s funny how our perspectives change as we get older and we begin to look at matters in a totally different light to before. Things like fear, isolation, and loneliness can prey on the minds of people – especially the minds of older folk who live in rural areas on their own, who may have no immediate family locally to look after them.

A reader, who lives in a very isolated spot in the area covered by the Roscommon People, contacted me to highlight the problems that she and her elderly husband already face when it comes to things like shopping, and she wondered why there are so few retirement homes/villages in this country for people like them.

This lady told me that her biggest fear is how one of them would survive if the other was to pass away, as their nearest neighbour is a five-minute drive from them…which would be