[1] At second level, Gilligan attended St. Andrew's College, Booterstown, and while there, from age 12 to age 16, she played Laura Halpin in the Irish soap opera Fair City,[1] and wrote her first novel, Forget,[3][4][5] as a Transition Year secondary school project.
Achieving eight Higher-Level A1 grades in her Leaving Certificate examinations,[1] Gilligan continued her studies at Cambridge University achieving a double First Class Honours[citation needed] degree in English literature from Gonville and Caius College.
[10] In January 2009, Gilligan was announced as the youngest ever recipient of an O'Reilly Foundation Scholarship to pursue advanced studies in English literature.
It received very favourable reviews, including numerous comparisons to James Joyce and Colum McCann.
[18][15] Gilligan is married to lawyer and former Olympic fencer on the Great Britain team, Alex O'Connell.