Marie Fleming and husband Tom. Marie passed away in December
RIGHT to die campaigner Marie Fleming has left behind a remarkable book about her early life in Donegal – and how her mother left her family for a Fianna Fail Senator.
Ms Fleming, originally from Lifford, passed away in December. She had been suffering from MS.
She penned an incredible biography in her final years, which is being serialised in the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent.
In the first extracts from An Act of Love published on Saturday Ms Fleming had written about how her mother left her, her four siblings and her dad Danny Brolly in 1969 to have an affair with Donegal Senator Patrick McGowan.
The affair became a national scandal in 1970 when Mr Brolly took a civil case against father of eight and hotelier Senator McGowan.
Ms Fleming recounts the court case and how her father won IR£3,800 in damages when the case was settled out of court.
Her father had accused McGowan of “debaucing and carnally knowing” his wife, “unlawfully procuring” Mrs Brolly in Lifford, Dungloe, Bundoran, Rossnowlagh, Sligo and Dublin.
The story was front page news at the time.
Ms Fleming recounts how their mother left her five children on several occasions, the last time whilst pregnant with Senator McGowan’s baby.
The series continues in today’s Sunday Independent.
