Jenny Dixon feels very lucky with where she lives in Dublin with her husband and twins

Jenny Dixon feels very lucky with where shes live in north Dublin, and she knows she can count on her neighbours if she needs them.

The actress shares a home with her husband Tom Neville and her twin daughters, Bella and Capri, but she has also noticed a change in community spirit since she was a growing up nearby.

She also opened up about loneliness, the older generation and changing attitudes in Ireland.

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Jenny told RSVP Magazine: "I’m very lucky with where we live. My neighbours are always there when I need them.

"I frequently borrow milk and tea bags — I know that sounds cliché! I even borrowed some bubble wrap to put away Halloween decorations [laughs].

"It’s such a nice community where I am and we all look out for each other."

However, attitudes towards people changed in recent times in Ireland.

The former Fair City star explained: "I think the world has changed, largely because of the pandemic. There has been a major fallout from Covid.

"I think people have more empathy because of what we went through as a collective community. We had to deal with a lot of personal things at the time, myself included, and I never realised that other people had these hardships going on as well.

"As a result of surviving a once-in-a-lifetime event, empathy has increased and we feel for each other more"

How has community spirit changed since she growing up? "Social media is a huge difference. I’m glad to have had my childhood pre-social media. My childhood was all about being outdoors and screens weren’t a thing bar an odd computer game here and there.

"Screens weren’t a way of life back then. Life now is also far more diverse, which is good because that’s educating us.

"There’s a lot more LGBTQ+ representation. There’s such progress when it comes to culture and ethnicity."

For Jenny, it is important is it to maintain these caring attitudes to each other.

She said: "When you strip everything back, that’s all that really matters. We’re one being, and you can’t step on one organism and expect it to thrive.

"There needs to be awareness beyond the cliché. I’ve seen it work on events like World Kindness Day where people go out of their way and that makes you think.

"It could be powerful if being kind became our default setting. It would start a lovely ripple effect."

Older people are revered in some cultures, but, sadly, they’re often forgotten about in our society in modern times.

She added: "We have some elderly people where we live and some of the neighbours are very good to them and they look out for them. Covid impacted older people, they were told to stay indoors and to wear masks, and you can see the fallout from that now.

"They have the friends or family to shake them out of that.

"I think loneliness and isolation might affect older men more because women might be adept at socialising. That element in seniority and wisdom that exists in other cultures is missing here."

Read the full interview with Jenny Dixon in this month’s issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves nationwide now

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