‘It’s changed how I see the world’ – says Mary Lou McDonald following death of her father and husband’s cancer diagnosis

Her father Patrick ‘Paddy’ McDonald died in August and the party leader spoke last week about a “tough year” during which her husband, Martin Lanigan, was diagnosed with bowel cancer while she was recovering from a hysterectomy.

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois, Ms McDonald said the loss of her father has “changed how I see the world, not to mind politics”.

“I’ve met people over the years and honest to god, I’ve wondered, ‘How do they manage? How do they get up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other?’ And yet they do,” she said.

“It’s only when you get a lot of curveballs, a lot of challenges coming in your life all at once that you actually have to stop speculating and start living and actually doing it.

“It’s changed how I see the world. Bereavement is a game changer, cancer coming into a household, as everyone will know, changes everything – not just for the person themselves but for the whole…