Micheál Martin opens up about the heartache of losing his two children
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has opened up about the heartache he felt after losing his two children, Ruairí, who tragically died from cot death in 1999, and Léana who suffered from heart problems and sadly passed away in 2010.
Speaking with Doireann Garrihy on her podcast, The Laughs Of Your Life, Micheál candidly spoke about how he “didn’t believe” he would ever smile again after the loss of his children.
“I think bereavement itself is very difficult,” the Fianna Fáil leader said, adding, “We lost Ruairí and Léana and you actually never think you’ll laugh again.”
“I remember when Ruairí died, it was a cot death, and I always remember we got lots of supportive comments and callers and people writing to us, and I just remember one morning reading a letter from a teacher who had been through something similar — and I just say this in case there’s anyone listening in a similar situation — at the end of the letter was, ‘Don’t worry, you will smile again’.”
“Now it seemed an odd thing to read and it was something I didn’t believe when I read it, but it’s true. You do learn to smile again and you will smile again, but at that time you have no sense that you ever will.”
Continuing, Micheál spoke about his three other children, sons Micheál Aodh and Cillian and daughter Aoibhe, who helped him move on from his heartache and grief.
“The most fundamental thing in life is you do have to get up the next morning… and after Ruairí [passed away] Micheál Aodh and Aoibhe were very young and they had to have their breakfast, we had to get up to make sure that they had their life, notwithstanding what had happened.”
“Children are far more observant than you might think. They know the mannerisms of their parents, they know something’s wrong, they know something’s going on. But that was the beginning of that recovery — getting up for your kids.”
The Taoiseach continued to say though that everyone copes differently, “with their own way of dealing with this.”
