Today, for the fourth time in five years, I found myself back in the north-west within the first two weeks of a new year paying tribute to the passing of an older member of the extended family.

There is always an element of sadness but again, today, I found myself reinforced in the sense that the support and love of family, friends and community trumps all achievement, all status and all wealth in life.

There were many in the room that have experienced hard times in recent years, ill health and disappointment in different guises but for a few hours, that seemed irrelevant.

People too had come from all over Ireland north and south, from the UK and those that couldn’t participated on-line.  On a similar occasion a number of years ago a friend, who was there again today, told me that wealth was ‘land to the east, people to the west’. That may be a bit unfair to more than half the population, but he had a point about ‘home’, our home.

The community effect is healing. We really should try it more often.