Longford EU Elections: Walsh makes case for a return to Europe

If asked to pick the MEP from the guests in the lobby of The Longford Arms Hotel last Thursday Maria Walsh would not be the obvious choice.
Aesthetically she's not your run-of-the-mill politician. Her platinum hair is cut short, a ladybird is depicted taking flight in a tattoo behind her ear.

There's a cheerful ease of exchange, the micro theatre of human communication comes easily to her. She clearly enjoys human interaction; even when challenged an optimistic disposition is maintained.

Ms Walsh's Longford sojourn is a constituency visit and an opportunity to canvass voters for her bid to return to Europe.
A member of the European Parliament for the Midlands–North-West constituency since July 2019, her profile stems from winning the 2014 Rose of Tralee. A member of Fine Gael, in Europe she's aligned with the European People's Party.
Europe was once seen as the dumping ground for failed politicians. As the world became smaller the relevance of European representation increased, the importance of quality candidates to push the Irish agenda in the hemicycles was recognised by the political parties.

There are 13 MEPs representing Ireland's three constituencies. Five are women. This level of female representation is more progressive than any other elected forum in the State.
Dáil Eireann has 36 women (22.5%) and 124 men representing the population. Longford County Council has 18 seats, two occupied by female councillors, Peggy Nolan and Uruemu Adejnmi. Only seven women have sat on the local authority since 1920.
Earlier this year Ms Walsh flagged the parliament’s current gender imbalance which sees a ratio of 61% of male MEPs to 39% female.

“I think male, pale and stale is a very common theme out here,” the Midlands North West MEP, said of the statistics as Fianna Fáil announced a three man team to contest for Euro seats.
Closer to home Fine Gael's Longford's local election roster has ten candidates, only one is female, and that's a sitting councillor.

How does this square with changing the narrative around balanced representation: “It kind of caught a storm,” she says of the reaction to her observation, “At European Parliament level, which is where I know best, we do not have equal representation.
“If we walk out of The Longford Arms now and go up the street, who are you meeting? It's not just a certain type of male of a certain age and skin colour. I was challenging our own bias of who we're putting forward, the type of lived experiences we're putting forward.”

Engagement is part of her effort to address the issue: “These past five years, I've really tried to work on that by speaking with young people, and our ageing population. Finding out if we are reflective of the society we're living in now? If we're not, what are we going to do about it?”

The relevance of politics is a clear passion for Ms Walsh: “Everybody talks about economics, but there's also social policy, which is really important. What I mean by that is amenities; better school systems, mental health supports, all the things that are the fabric of our society, which often gets overlooked at a European level as well as national and local.”
The Mayo woman insists this is not a one sided conversation: “Every party has a responsibility to attract and make politics appetising to those in our community, but we also have to meet people half way, making sure that we, as citizens, are also putting our names forward.”

She outlined efforts of Fine Gael to address the issue: “We now have a dedicated diversity and inclusion officer who's giving regular training for women and anybody from any minority background. We have a women's network within the party.
“We have a diversity and inclusion network within the party. We have candidate and campaign training, so we're trying to make sure, as a party, that we're breaking that spell that if you didn't grow up in it, you can't belong in it.”
One of the most pressing issues for voters across Ireland and for the EU is inward migration. Longford has recently witnessed the mobilisation of objectors to State plans for housing international protection applicants in the county.

Concerned locals opposed to the accommodation of families seeking international protection at the Westhouse Café and B&B in Longford made their opinions known outside the property on Easter Saturday.
As a policy maker the Fine Gael MEP says it's a significant issue: “Next week, we'll vote on the EU Migration Pact.
“This has been developed since 2014, when we saw overwhelming numbers coming from third countries into countries like Greec, Italy and Malta. There's a couple issues within this. I really believe communication from the department and ourselves, as public representatives, needs to get stronger,” Ms Walsh says.
She advocates a community led approach to such communication: “That conversations should not just be with public reps, but also community leaders.

“There needs to be enough time given to sharing factual information about new community members, be it short-term or long-term, I think that would dispel a lot of concern and give faith to the communities.”
The sitting MEP is from Shrule, County Mayo lending her an insight into how rural Ireland feels about the pace of societal change.

Ms Walsh recognises the challenges this presents: “I think there's a lot of fear-mongering and scare-mongering. I think a very small minority, even if it's a very loud minority of people, are playing the us-versus-them game.
“We need to be exceptionally careful about creating this greater divide between people of different beliefs, skin tones, genders, and different mother tongues.
“They're fleeing war-torn areas, they're under persecution, they've seen severe famine, disease, and we need to be cognisant of that.”

She offers a view of a changing Ireland: “I was seven when my family moved back from America to the small village of Shrew, my siblings and I were the only international community members in the village at that time.
“Now we have 34, or 35 nationalities within that small village and that's phenomenal. I mean, we are an exceptionally growing economy.”
Her canvass message is direct: “A big part for me is my five years of experience. I hope people see the proven track record of serving the Midlands, North West.

“Working on delivering an EU-wide mental health strategy is incredibly important. The second leading cause of death right now in our EU is death by suicide for our young people.
“The blueprint is already there, where EU member states are working together on an EU mental health strategy. Another issue really important for me is support for farm families,” she said.

Midlands North West MEP Maria Walsh spoke to the Leader on Thursday, April 4 on her visit to Longford town, Granard, Ballinalee and Ballymahon as she canvassed for the European Elections on Friday June 7.