Zappone ‘will never be the same’ after wife’s death

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said she will "never be the same" following the death of her wife Dr Ann Louise Gilligan last month.

Ms Zappone said the couple, who married in 2003 in British Columbia, spent “36 blissful years together and we supported each other in everything that we did”.

"My entire life has changed, I will never be the same . . . We just had this extraordinary oneness, it was a great gift, we were very blessed," she told RTÉ's Saturday Night with Miriam.

“It was that love that really enabled us and drove us to and helped us to work towards the referendum and the freedom of ourselves as well as so many other people. I will never be the same person.”

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Dr Gilligan, from Dublin, taught at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and at Dublin City University. She was also a co-founder and director of An Cosán, a centre of learning, leadership and enterprise in Jobstown, Tallaght West. She died following a short illness in June.

Ms Zappone said she was “doing okay” a month after her wife’s death.

“I just take it one day at a time or sometimes every minute. It’s great to have an incredible job which I’m very privileged to do for the children of Ireland,” she said.

“I suppose that gives a bit of distraction but at the same time I know that it’s really important was well to take time out each day just to let the extraordinary loss I feel in.”

First meeting

The couple first met in Boston College, Massachusetts, in 1981, when they were doing their doctorates in theology.

“I was coming from New York and I walked into the classroom that day in September and I looked over and saw this gorgeous woman,” Ms Zappone said.

“I wondered who she was and it turned out she was the other one who was accepted that year for the programme.”

She said following six weeks “we had decided we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together”. Ms Zappone said her wife was “very supportive of me” and “so proud” of her work as a TD and Minister. She said they spent Dr Gilligan’s last couple of days “telling each other how much we loved each other”.

“She loved life and embraced every single moment and so I know that she would want me to find a way to allow this extraordinary heartbreak that I feel . . . to heal to the point that I can embrace and love life again.”