Edel Coffey: A college reunion brought a liberating realisation last week 

The need to belong is a basic part of our human nature. It operates in the same centres of our brain that react to hunger and pain. It’s why Covid played such havoc with our mental health.

Edel Coffey muses on what home means in this week's column 

Last week I went to a college reunion that was not mine but still managed to bring me on a trip down memory lane regardless. The event took place around my old stomping grounds of Dublin 2, the area where I lived for many years and spent some of my happiest times.

It was here that I passed my single and independent years, gallivanting around town by night and working hard in jobs that I loved by day. It was a safe and pretty area, leafy and sedate, a sleepy village just a few minutes' walk from the city centre.