‘A knock on the door can save a life’ – alarming rise in number of deaths going undiscovered for years sheds light on loneliness epidemic

The bungalow near Cloneen, Co Tipperary, where the bodies of Nicholas and Hilary Smith were found in 2022. Photo: Dylan Vaughan.

Catherine Fegan

The notice placed in a Manchester newspaper appealing for Alan Moore’s next of kin to contact Wexford garda station came like a bolt from the blue.

It appeared in the Salford Advertiser in 2012, leading Mr Moore’s siblings to learn the 62-year-old had been found dead in his home in Ireland.