The father of the woman at the centre of the assisted suicide case said yesterday he bore no ill will towards the two men who were with her when she died.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Owen Toole said it was "the end of a long, sad story" for his daughter, Ms Rosemary Toole Gilhooley.
The Rev George Exoo and Mr Thomas McGurrin travelled from West Virginia to be with her when she died last week.
His daughter was suffering and Mr Exoo "took her gently out of it", Mr Toole said. "I give him my full blessing. I still feel I owe him."
He denied a report that he had held on to his daughter's suicide note for three days to allow the men to leave the country. Mr Toole said he contacted the Garda within 10 minutes of receiving the note.
He was speaking publicly because he wanted to pay tribute to his daughter who was "brilliant, with a wonderful brain. She was a remarkable girl, she was extremely clever, she was a very good painter, she had many many gifts."
He said Rosemary suffered from an anxiety neurosis and had done everything possible to treat it. Since her death, psychiatrists have emphasised the success of various treatments for depression. That may be the case for some people but his daughter had tried every possible mix of treatment and nothing had worked.
He said the rights and wrongs of suicide were a very grey area. While he could not condone suicide generally, he could not condemn his daughter's decision. "But it might not be a good thing in other cases."
Earlier yesterday, Mr Toole told listeners to the The Marian Finucane Show on RTÉ radio about his daughter's early years.
He and his late wife adopted Rosemary after her birth in 1953. She was "a wonderfully trouble-free baby" and had a "carefree, lovely childhood". Her problems started when she had a nervous breakdown in her mid-30s.
