Maria Walsh (born 11 June 1987) is an Irish politician who has been a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

for the Midlands–North-West constituency since July 2019. She is a member of

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

, part of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

. Outside of politics, she is known for winning the 2014 Rose of Tralee pageant.

Early life and education

Maria Walsh was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, on 11 June 1987. Her mother, Noreen, grew up in

Leitir Móir Lettermore () is a Gaeltacht village in County Galway, Ireland. It is also the name of an island, linked by road to the mainland, on which the village sits. The name comes from the Irish ''Leitir Móir'' meaning ''great rough hillside'' (''leiti ...

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speak ...

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, while her father Vincent is from

Roundfort Roundfort (Irish: Lois na Maol) is a parish in County Mayo, Ireland with a church (Church of the Immaculate Conception), school (Roundfort National School), a playschool and a local pub (Delia Murphy's). Farming is the main provider within the ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

. She has three siblings. The family moved to

Shrule Shrule (, also anglicised to ''Shruel'', usage deprecated) is a village on the N84 road in County Mayo in Ireland. The county boundary between Mayo and County Galway follows the course of the Black River on the south side of the village. The r ...

, County Mayo in Ireland in 1994. After her college education, she emigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in the United States, and then moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 2011. Between 2017 and 2019 Walsh was serving as a member of the

Army Reserve A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

as a trooper with the Cavalry Corps (1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron) based in the

Defence Forces Training Centre , image = Defense Force Training Centre Flag (Ireland).svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Flag of the DFTC , dates = , country = , role = , size = , command_structure = Defence Forces , garrison = *Curragh Camp, County Kildare *G ...

Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel ...

. The 'about two years' is part of what she says about herself when speaking in the accompanying

recruitment Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...

video.

2014 Rose of Tralee

The 2014 Rose of Tralee was the 55th edition of the annual Irish international festival held on 15–19 August 2014. The international finals of the competition were broadcast live by

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís � ...

television on 18–19 August. Maria Walsh, competing as the

Rose, was crowned the winner of the competition on 19 August. She was aged 27 at the time, and had moved to Philadelphia in 2011. She had been the favourite with the

bookies A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

, with

Paddy Power Paddy Power is an Irish gambling company founded in 1988. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK Ireland (UKI) and International. UKI operations ...

offering odds of 2/5 for her to take victory. During her time as the reigning Rose of Tralee, Walsh met with US President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

on St. Patrick's Day 2015.

Political career

2019 European Parliament election

Walsh first entered electoral politics in the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

. During the campaign a website "designed to look like a campaign site in favour of Walsh's candidacy" was set up to oppose her campaign and " 'the homosexual lifestyle' ". The website broadcast ads on

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. After Fine Gael requested that both Google and Facebook remove the ads, Facebook refused to do so, professing that the ads 'did not break community standards'. Despite this, Walsh was elected in that election as an MEP from Midlands–North-West constituency as a member of Fine Gael and of the

. She was the third of four successful candidates; Walsh placed behind her Fine Gael colleague

Mairead McGuinness Mairead McGuinness (born 13 June 1959) is an Irish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael, she previously served as Fi ...

and

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Luke "Ming" Flanagan, and ahead of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

Matt Carthy Matt Carthy (born 19 July 1977) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency since the 2020 general election. He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for th ...

. Unlike Walsh, the other three successful candidates were already sitting MEPs for the constituency.

In the European Parliament

In October 2019, Walsh, alongside fellow members of Fine Gael

, Frances Fitzgerald and Seán Kelly, voted against an EU resolution to increase the number of vessels providing search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean. Walsh said she did in fact support more search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean but cited an amendment inserted into the resolution which would have mandated that radar information would be shared among all vessels in the Mediterranean, a provision that Walsh suggested would backfire by tipping-off

human smugglers People smuggling (also called human smuggling), under U.S. law, is "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, ei ...

, helping them avoid the authorities. The resolution was rejected by a margin of two votes. As a dual US-Irish citizen, Walsh was entitled to vote in the

2020 US Presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala H ...

, and did so, casting her vote for Joe Biden. In February 2020, Walsh broke with

(the European Parliamentary party of which Fine Gael is a member) ranks to support a veto on the construction of a number of energy production projects across Europe which included 55

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

projects. Walsh was one of only three EPP members to do so. One of the 55 fuel projects in question is a

Liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

station at

Ballylongford Ballylongford (historically ''Bealalongford'', from ) is a village near Listowel in northern County Kerry, Ireland. Geography The village is situated near the estuary of the Ballyline River, on Ballylongford Bay, a tidal estuary of the River Sha ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, which critics suggest could be used to bring imported fracked gas into Ireland from the US and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Outlining the reasons behind her vote, Walsh underlined her opposition to

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

. The veto did not pass, but fellow Irish MEPs such as the Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe praised her for her actions. In June 2021 while speaking in the European Parliament, Walsh called for more focus to be given to

sexual rights Sexual and reproductive health and rights or ''SRHR'' is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at ...

and

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on t ...

in education following the publishing of a report by the EU calling for greater rights for women across member nations. In July 2021 Walsh supported the European Commission's legal action against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

over their attempts to introduce laws concerning the

LGBT Community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...

there. Walsh stated "In the two years that I've been elected, we have had a number of resolutions: one being against what Poland had done in terms of creating these LGBTI free zones. Again, and most recently with the Hungarian changes in their legislation that is anti-everything the EU stands for in terms of values and principles such as treating everyone equal and fair. But ultimately, we need the Commission now to ensure that if this two month period for infringement procedures, if that is not seen, we cannot kick the bucket down the line any further. We need to have action. Orbán faces a new election next year and it's important that myself and other MEPs continue to denounce his work." Walsh also announced she would be attending a

pride march The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. Among the largest Pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each J ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, with the goal of demonstrating to the Hungarian LGBT community that the EU stood by them.

Personal life

Walsh revealed that she is lesbian five days after winning the Rose of Tralee in 2014.Rose of Tralee reveals that she's gay
''RTÉ News'', 24 August 2014.Rose heartened by response to revelations that she is gay
''Irish Times'', 25 August 2014.

References

External links

*
Maria Walsh's page on the Fine Gael website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Maria 1987 births 21st-century women MEPs for the Republic of Ireland American emigrants to Ireland Fine Gael MEPs LGBT conservatism LGBT history in Ireland LGBT legislators in Ireland LGBT members of the European Parliament Irish lesbians Lesbian politicians Living people MEPs for the Republic of Ireland 2019–2024 Politicians from County Mayo Winners of the Rose of Tralee 21st-century Irish LGBT people