In a remarkable interview with Hot Press, independent Senator Lynn Ruane, who represents Trinity College in the Seanad, has spoken about one of the most taboo subjects of all, euthenasia.

Ruane says that she believes in euthanasia and talks about planning to take the life of her father – who suffered from a form of Alzheimer’s disease.

“We were in the kitchen one day after he’d pulled the catheter from his penis,” she recalls… “He had this moment of clarity where he looked up at me and he said, ‘I’ve lost my mind. You know there’s no point in me living’. And it was from that very moment that I began to think about euthanasia and the fact that my dad was a very, very proud man, worked hard, fit, and all of a sudden he had no control over where his mind took him and he didn’t want to live, you know?

“I thought regularly about how I was going to take him out of his pain and the situation that he was in,” she adds. “I even tried to convince my Mam at one stage that I would help him die.”

The Hot Press cover headline describes Lynn Ruane as “Ireland’s most honest politician” – and that is how she comes across in a powerful, in depth interview in which she pulls no punches. The Tallaght native also tells Hot Press’ Jason O’ Toole, how she took drugs – including methadone, cocaine and speed – to cope with the death of a childhood friend.

“I really, really wanted to use heroin, I thought about it constantly,” she states. “I didn’t use it because there there was a tiny bit of hope inside me that I could go on and achieve all the things I wanted to achieve.”

Ruane beat her addiction, eventually going to college, and qualifying as a drug counsellor, before winning a scholarship to Trinity College. She moved onto the campus with her two children and gained a BA in politics and philosophy.

Ruane also spoke about her battles with the law, including being arrested for shoplifting and stealing cars. “I used to make tinfoil bags at home that would stop the alarms going off in the shops,” she says.

In an extraordinary and wide-ranging interview, Ruane reveals how she lost her virginity; her decision to become a mother at 15; why she abstained from sex for four years; the circumstances in which she would have an abortion; the way in which the legal system is prejudiced against men; her views on the legalisation of drugs – and lots more besides.

The full, brilliantly honest interview is in the current issue of Hot Press, out now.

You can Buy Hot Press 40-11 starring Roisin Murphy in our Longitude Special and featuring Lynn Ruane in the Hot Press Interview direct from hotpress.com