This is a devastating statistic, particularly as the highest level elsewhere in the EU is just 13%, which effectively makes Ireland the loneliest country in Europe.

Having children at home doesn’t always allay feelings of loneliness, but conversely, these feelings can be amplified when a child leaves home and we are left with an empty house.

Empty nest syndrome, as it is dubbed, can affect anyone, with David Beckham recently revealing that he is already dreading it.

His three sons, Brooklyn (25), Romeo (22), and Cruz (20) have all departed to forge their own paths, leaving just 13-year-old Harper at home with the former England and Man United footballer and his wife Victoria.

“We’re not quite there yet, but it’s actually painful. We’ve gone from having four in the house to one,” he said in an interview with Men’s Health magazine.

“Everyone knows I’m a neat freak. I’m very tidy, very organised, and I don’t like mess. But when you have kids, there’s mess. (But) I’d actually love to walk into their rooms and see wet towels on the floor. 

"I miss it. What I would give to have that back and be able to walk in, moaning to them about it.”

I can relate. Since my sons were babies, I’ve had the luxury of being able to work from home, so I have always been present in their lives — increasing my workload when they started school and cramming in as much as I could while they were either out of the house or in bed for the night.

There were many times when I questioned the logic of this arrangement, as not only was I over-stretched at times, but school holidays were challenging. 

I conducted many a phone interview (thankfully, Zoom wasn’t so popular back then) with the latest trending celebrity or eminent professor as I sat with my back against the door, trying to keep a posse of boisterous boys from entering.

Fast forward to the teenage years, and life became even more frantic with extracurricular activities, late-night pick-ups, parties, and nights out — it was full on.

I was frazzled and often running on empty, but looking back, I was in my element. 

The busyness and stress suited me, and I loved having the house full of the boys and their friends.

So I know exactly where Beckham is coming from as our busy household has emptied and become a quiet (and tidy) space, which is obviously a great environment for focusing the mind, but not so great for the heart.

Of course, I cried when my eldest son (now 26) left home to go to college in Dublin. But he was home every weekend as he worked in a local restaurant and I had two other sons at home to keep me busy. 

When my now 24-year-old son went to college in Galway, it was closer, but it was still a wrench. With just one child at home, things were a lot quieter.

Since then, a confluence of events has meant all three of them moved abroad, almost within the same week. 

The mere thought of this sent me into a tailspin and although I was upbeat for them, I was dreading the reality for us.

My husband is self-employed and works long hours (including Saturdays). For me, working from home without colleagues, the contrast from the constant busyness of family to-ing and fro-ing, to suddenly having an eerily quiet house filled me with dread.

Keep busy for an easier transition

Knowing I would be upset when they left, I decided to get proactive and create a distraction by booking a trip away for my husband and me, leaving a few days after the boys.

Of course, we couldn’t stay away forever and returning home was very strange.

Initially, I found it difficult to go into their bedrooms, which, in the absence of most of their belongings, looked almost desolate. 

So, for the first few weeks, I kept all their doors closed as I tried to kid myself that they were just in town or away for a couple of days.

Keeping busy was essential, so I accepted all offers of work, put dates in the diary to meet friends for a walk or coffee, and made plans for most weekends.

There was no denying the quietness that Beckham is dreading, but I think that by filling it with other things, at least in the beginning, when the change is hardest to adjust to, the transition becomes a little easier.

Thanks to cheap flights, sometimes less than €15, (God bless Ryanair), trips over and back to Europe have been frequent and we have also met on several occasions as a family on the continent — picking a random city which my OH and I will fly to from Ireland, while the boys just hop on a train and meet us there.

Focus on the quality time

These get-togethers are much more rewarding and, as one of my sons put it, are “real quality time” because “if we were home together all the time, we wouldn’t make so much of an effort to do things”.

We are into the second year of our empty nest, and it gets easier — you get used to doing your own thing, and making plans without checking if anyone will be at home or need picking up.

I still miss having the guys around, but when they are all in the house together, to quote Blur, it gives me an enormous sense of wellbeing.

Despite recent figures from the latest Census revealing that 68% of Irish 18-34 year olds are still living with their parents, moving out of the family home is the natural order of things.

So, although I miss them, it would be far more problematic in the long run if they were stuck with us.

Too many adults in one house is not a great mix — even though the average age for men leaving home in Ireland was 28.5 in 2023, while women cut the apron strings a year earlier.

My youngest son will be heading to Asia as part of his college placement at the end of this year. 

If you had told me that when he first left home, I would have been horrified at the very thought of him being at the other side of the world — but now, while I am filled with some trepidation, I’m also really excited for him and looking forward to some Eastern adventures in the coming months.

So, to the Beckhams and everyone else feeling anxious about having an empty nest, yes it can be tough and it is sad saying goodbye to your kids — but we give them wings so they can fly and the fact that they feel secure enough to spread them means we have done our jobs well.

And, always remember, that they will be back — and those times together will be precious.