‘A lot of people presumed I was dying’ – Mairead McGuinness speaks for first time since withdrawing from presidential election
Ms McGuinness was Fine Gael’s nominee to contest the election, but she announced her withdrawal from the race in August on health grounds.Speaking to Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1, Ms McGuinness said she was diagnosed with a severe case of post-viral syndrome.“I suppose every part of me, I wasn't well, I was physically drained, I had lost loads of weight, I wasn't sleeping, and it crept up on me very quickly.“I’d had some kind of virally things, but didn't think they were significant until I was hit with this. I suppose it was like a bolt from the blue, where I was knocked sideways and couldn't keep going.“And of course, it would be fine if you weren't in the public space, and you could opt out and stop.Today's News in 90 - Saturday, February 7 “But I was nominated by my party, and I was very happy to get that nomination to run and contest the presidency, and I had to make a decision.”Ms McGuinness said she felt she was faced with a decision between continuing in the presidential race or prioritising her health.On her fourth day in his hospital, she said she received news that a close friend of hers had died, and asked herself if she would be able to “compete effectively” in a tough campaign.“It was a tough decision in many ways, but easy to take in the end, and once I took it, and again, it was kind of interesting on that day, on that Thursday, and that was a week before the announcement was made, so we had a long period of sort of that interim.“But when I took that decision, I actually wrote down the decision, I wrote the press release that would announce it, and I wrote, ‘Don't let anyone change your mind’. So, it was quite definitive for me that I had to do this.”People respected her privacy while she recovered, but Ms McGuinness said some people began to fear the worst.“A lot of people had presumed I was dying, which was quite shocking to hear back that I had three months to live, this was said to family members, but it was understandable because it was such a big decision to take and so public that people thought, God, she must be on the way out.”Having initially thought she was going to recover, Ms McGuinness said: "I wasn’t codding myself, because I’m reasonably good at reading the tea leaves. I thought I was going to be able to get better, as you can if you’ve a dose or something, that you get over it."But the day I made the decision, I suppose you reach a point where you know you just can’t keep going, and I don’t think I’d ever been at that point before.”Looking back, she said she does not have any “sleepless nights” over missing out on a chance to be the President.“Well, you know, it's funny about whether you really want. I'm a great believer in what's for you won't pass you. So I ran for politics, I was 45 in 2004. Did I really want to be a member of the European Parliament? I have a great curiosity about the other side."While she admitted it was “a disappointment”, she said it was a bigger disappointment for the people around her who had placed “great faith” in her.Ms McGuinness said she is in good health now, but when asked if she was back to 100pc, said her 100pc “is everybody else’s 150pc”, as a colleague in Brussels told her after learning about her illness.On how the presidential campaign unfolded in the months following her withdrawal, she said she tried not to “get too involved”, but it was “hard to avoid”.“It was a campaign that I think for the country went in all sorts of peculiar directions, and I suppose if I had felt bad about letting people down because I was unwell and couldn't keep going, I think what happened subsequently to others, it didn't make me feel better, but it didn't make me feel worse.”She said Jim Gavin’s withdrawal from the race was “a very difficult time" for Fianna Fáil, the campaign overall “was a hard one for the country”, and rejected suggestions that Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys had an unsuccessful campaign.Ms McGuinness also expressed disappointment over the sectarian abuse suffered by Ms Humphreys, a Presbyterian, during the race.“Heather, and everybody knows this, is a very decent human being, but what happened to Heather and her family around sectarian abuse is despicable, and no one should go through that.“And if anything, and I hope people around the country who said and wrote and whatever, realise the damage that did, not just personally to those close to Heather and to her, but the hurt it caused to people of her community.”
