Irish Examiner view: One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do

We must do more to get young people out of their rooms and connected to various activities and social groups

Unbundling people’s feelings and perceptions and turning them into something actionable is no easy matter. 

It is one of the great paradoxes of modern life that, in a world where people are connected like never before, those claiming that they are “lonely” seem to rise relentlessly.

The topic was sharply ventilated this week before the Oireachtas education committee after two-year-old research identifying Ireland as “the loneliest country in the EU” was cited in a debate about a decline in what is described as “third spaces” where young people can socialise and congregate for free in a safe environment.