Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the tough personal year she had last year has changed her outlook.
Ms McDonald has said that after she took several months off recovering from hysterectomy surgery last year, her husband became seriously ill while on a family holiday in France.
He went through surgery and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Also, her father died several weeks ago.
“It’s changed how I see the world, not to mind politics,” she said at the National Ploughing Championships.
“It’s a strange thing, because in the work that we do, you meet people who confront all sorts of challenges. 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.
“But 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. So, yeah, it’s changed me.
“Bereavement is a game-changer. When cancer comes into a household, as everyone will know, it changes everything, not just for the person themselves, but for the whole family. So yeah, it’s changed.
“Politically, I think that’ll be for others to judge, but I have a renewed and incredibly deep respect for carers, for people who care in our health system, for family home carers. I think they are amazing people.
“I think politically there hasn’t been the correct response to that, and I’m determined that there will.
“So I’m still the same. I’m still up and at it. But has that changed me? Yeah, I mean, how could it not?”
Asked whether the party had discussed with Jarlath Burns if he would run for the Aras next year, she said that Mr Burns is “very happy” as president of the GAA.
“I can’t imagine a leadership role that Jarlath couldn’t fulfil. He’s outstanding, as you see, we’ve known this a long time, but he’s an outstanding person.
“That’d be a matter for himself. I’m not going to going to court him in the pages of your newspaper.”
