SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Mary Lou McDonald has spoken publicly for the first time about her husband Martin’s cancer diagnosis.

McDonald spoke openly this morning during an interview on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM about the difficult year her family has had.

McDonald revealed that her husband Martin Lanigan was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year, and spent a number of weeks in intensive care in a French hospital.

Lanigan became seriously ill while the couple and their family were on a short break in France, not long after McDonald herself had recovered from a hysterectomy in June 2023.

“Literally between packing the case to come home and arriving at the airport Martin got really, really sick,” McDonald said today.

She continued: ” I didn’t know what it was but I knew it was serious.”

McDonald explained that her husband had to be rushed to hospital in Biarritz where they learned that his bowel had burst.

“They saved his life,” McDonald said.

During surgery, a tumor was found and Lanigan was later given a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. As a result, Lanigan spent several weeks in intensive care in France with McDonald remaining by his side.

“It was one of those moments in life where literally everything got turned upside down,” McDonald said, adding that she worried she would not be able to get her husband home to Ireland.

Lanigan’s prognosis is now positive, McDonald said.

After the family were able to return to Ireland, McDonald appeared on Ireland AM in September where she revealed that she had a hysterectomy a few months earlier.

Sinn Fein leader @MaryLouMcDonald on the show this morning discussing the recent passing of her father, as well as her husband's cancer diagnosis while she was recovering from a hysterectomy last year. #IrelandAM pic.twitter.com/fctJRZ1jfD

— Ireland AM (@IrelandAMVMTV) September 12, 2024

At the time she mentioned that she managed to get away on holiday during her recovery, but she has not spoken publicly about her husband’s health difficulties until now.

“At that stage my actual concern was for him… I was still trying to process what does this mean,” McDonald said today.

Separately, last month McDonald’s father Patrick ‘Paddy’ McDonald passed away.

Speaking about it today, McDonald said she’s had a “very eventful” and “tough year”.

“We buried my father five weeks ago. Anyone who has lost their Da knows that it’s a very hard thing. It’s a complete game change.

“I love my Da but we had a complicated relationship, he was a complicated person,” McDonald said, explaining that her parents were separated for most of her life.

“It’s kind of a strange thing, you lose your father so you have the grief of that but it’s not a straightforward grief if that makes sense,” McDonald said.

McDonald and her husband Martin have been married since 1996. The couple have two children together, Gearoid and Iseult.