There are a number of reasons why Katherine Zappone wanted to write her new memoir, Love in a Time of Politics. For the former government minister, it was a chance to document the life she shared with her late wife and partner of 36 years, Dr Ann Louise Gilligan.
It was also an opportunity to chart her journey through Irish politics, from a fresh-faced senator appointed by then taoiseach Enda Kenny, right through to her tenure as minister for children and youth affairs.
It also gave the former politician the space to tell her side of the story regarding two scandals that engulfed her life in the year after she left the Dáil.
But one of the main reasons the 71-year-old wanted to write the book was to “encourage women and young people to go into politics”.
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Speaking to Kathy Sheridan on The Irish Times Women’s Podcast, Zappone says that any woman thinking of making the move into politics should “do it”, because “we need your voices in the Dáil, in the Seanad, and in the county councils”.
By documenting her work on the campaign for marriage equality and the 2018 referendum to repeal the 8th amendment, the Irish-American wants readers of her new memoir to “see the potential of going into politics” and to understand how it can impact meaningful change in society.
“Many of the examples that I give [in the book], whether it’s childcare or repeal, demonstrate that it does make a difference for a woman to be sitting at the table, or other kinds of identities, it makes a difference.”
Some women might be turned off a career in politics because of the abuse that public representatives face both on and offline. So how did Zappone deal with this aspect of the job? “I stopped looking at social media in order to protect myself,” she says.
However, she acknowledges the problem is only getting worse for today’s politicians: “I didn’t get as much abuse as so many of them seem to get now.”
“I did have people come to my home in Dublin protesting and I was assigned a Garda that I could ring. Now that it’s gotten so bad, Ministers have guards drive them, which we didn’t at the time.”
In this wide-ranging conversation, Zappone also speaks about the death of her partner Gilligan in 2017 and the grief that followed that enormous loss. She tells Sheridan how she found love again with her South African partner Jennifer and what the future now holds for the pair.
You can listen back to this conversation in full, in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Did you know The Irish Times Women’s Podcast is turning ten years old? To celebrate a decade of conversation, craic and captivating stories, we are hosting our ten year birthday bash at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin on Tuesday, December 2nd. For more information and to get tickets to the event, see here.
