Ireland is Europe's loneliest country - this travel club aims to change all that  

A recent study by Alone showed Irish people are the loneliest in the EU. But Rory King tells Yvonne Reddin about how he tries to ward off isolation for solo travellers

A night out with Rory's Travel Club members

THE language of covid uncovered many new phrases that could have been misinterpreted as linguistics related to a war zone, which, in many ways, covid was; a pandemic conflict. Terms like mask up, isolate, social distance, stay at home, lockdown, vulnerable, 5km restrictions, herd immunity, remote working, elbow bump, essential travel, checkpoints, cocooning, self-quarantine, covid tracker, support bubble, long covid. It became a new language we all got accustomed to hearing and viewing across our media, it became part of our everyday conversation.

The pandemic altered the way we lived for a number of years and Ireland, like all countries, suffered. We are considered the loneliest country in Europe, according to a study from Alone.