Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is an honour that Maura Healey, the Governor of Massachusetts, will be visiting Ireland and will speak in Seanad Éireann next Tuesday. She is the first woman to hold that position in Massachusetts. She is one of the first openly gay candidates to run for and to be elected to office. Ireland has incredible ties to Boston, Massachusetts. So many Irish people feel that it is a home away from home. Maura Healey has strong connections with the west of Ireland and many other areas, but particularly Ballinasloe. I am a Senator from Ballinasloe, and it is incredible to think that the she has these ancestral connections to a small town in the west of Ireland. Those connections are through her great-grandmother, Katherine Tracy. Governor Healey's election last November was an incredible win for an excellent candidate for the Democratic Party, a person who has fought for civil rights, immigrant rights and LGBTQ rights all through her career.At that time we spoke in the Seanad and we requested that an invitation be issued, so I am thankful the Cathaoirleach has been able to make this come to pass.

When I speak about where I come, a small town, it is powerful to think that someone left Ireland as an emigrant and travelled to faraway shores, and now one of their family, a woman, is in this position as Governor and she is coming to Ireland to speak here in Seanad Éireann. I look forward to that. It is to be hoped she will be able to visit the west of Ireland again on her next visit. I want to highlight that we will have groups from Ballinasloe to welcome her when she comes to Seanad Éireann next Tuesday. It is an important thing for young women everywhere. She spoke to this when she was elected, about how, for young girls all over the world, there is no ceiling they cannot break. It is important we are seeing someone who is such a role model coming here to speak to us in Seanad Éireann next Tuesday. I thank the Cathaoirleach for organising this. I look forward to meeting this inspirational role model who will be with us next Tuesday.