Former Irish Minister Katherine Zappone has shared her reasons for returning to Ireland, revealing that she moved closer to her late wife's grave in order to be nearer to her memory.
Katherine Zappone has revealed that she moved back to Ireland to be closer to her late wife, Ann Louise Gilligan. Zappone lost her wife in June 2017 due to complications from a brain haemorrhage. She opened up about finding love again with her American partner, Jennifer, and how Jennifer came with her when she returned to Ireland . Katherine explained that it wasn't an easy decision to start dating again after Ann Louise's death.
'About four years after Anne's passing I decided that I would look for a new relationship, but that was not easy,' she told the Sunday Independent. 'It was very hard because when I married Ann Louise in 2003, 12 years before marriage equality here, we promised in sickness and health and till death do us part. But after she died, I was like, 'Am I still married? Am I still married to her?' Those reflections made it not easy but I knew she wanted me to be happy and what I found out was that she had said this to many friends.' Katherine met her partner Jennifer through mutual friends in the States. 'Jennifer decided to take a chance on me and not only me, but on Ireland, too. I really did feel the draw of Ireland as my home and one of those things was part of that is Ireland’s where Ann Louise is buried. When I was younger, I never did graves, that’s not as much part of the culture in the States, but I realised that it mattered to be where Ann Louise is buried.' Katherine and Ann Louise first met while they both studied theology at Boston College in the 1980s. Ann Louise was a former nun and had never had a relationship with another woman, whereas Katherine was out to some of her close friends. Katherine previously said that their love was meant to be, telling Miriam O’Callaghan on her RTÉ Radio 1 show in 2021: 'There were only two people that they chose for the doctorate of philosophy in that program that year, I was one and Ann Louise was the other.' She had heard there was an Irish woman in Boston College and when they met their relationship progressed quickly. The former Minister said: 'It wasn't really that long after that, that we fell hopelessly in love. I was a little concerned, at the time, early eighties, Ann Louise was Irish.' She remembered telling Ann Louise about her sexuality. She recalled: 'I remember so well when I shared my own identity with her and was trying to describe how I felt about her and I had no idea how she would respond.' Katherine added: 'She just looked at me and she said, 'I don't believe in labels. I believe in love'. And honest to God, that was the beginning and we were off.
KATHERINE ZAPPONE ANN LOUISE GILLIGAN IRELAND LOVE PARTNER
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