Maria Walsh was announced as an official candidate for Fine Gael in the European elections (Friday, 24 May 2019). Minister Michael Ring proposed and Minister Joe McHugh seconded the LGBT activist. She is running in the Midlands-North-West 4-seater constituency. The constituency is described as the ‘Malin M50’ for its wide spread. It runs from the outskirts of Dublin all the way to the Atlantic seaboard. It currently has 4 MEPs, 2 independents, a Fine Gael MEP and a Sinn Féin MEP. In the last election, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan topped the poll with 19.2% of first preference votes. Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness followed Flanagan with 14.2%. Also elected were Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy with 17.7% and Marian Harkin with 10.7%. Harkin has indicated that she will not be running for re-election.
The First “Gay” Rose
Maria Walsh is primarily known for two things. These are, simply, her identification as an LGBT activist and her winning of the Rose of Tralee in 2014. Both are closely related. To clarify, the judging panel of the Rose of Tralee (headed by RTEs Mary Kennedy) revealed in August 2014, after the competition, that they knew that Maria was ‘gay’. They also acknowledged that they knew her ‘sexuality would create some interest.’
The Rose of Tralee judging panel knew that Maria Walsh was ‘gay’.
Business Acumen
Maria claims to be an entrepreneur. She stated at her selection convention that she was ‘self-employed as a media and event consultant.’ Further details are not easy to find. In October 2017, Maria told Irish Independent reporter Fionnuala Jones that she was ‘focussing her attention on her wedding planning company Juniper & Ruby.’ However, a search at SoloCheck.ie reveals that this company resolved to apply to be struck off the register one month later. This was on 14 November 2017, and the company dissolved on 16 May 2018. Apparently, Maria’s company was only in business 2 years.
Maria Walsh’s ‘wedding planning company’ Juniper & Ruby was only in business 2 years.
[SoloCheck.ie]
Social Activist
Maria’s public profile since her winning the Rose of Tralee has been largely due to her LGBT activism. The definition of an activist is ‘a person who works to bring about political or social changes by campaigning in public or working for an organisation.’ Maria believes that society in general is unfairly biased against ‘LGBT’ people. Indeed, she declared in an article for Evoke.ie that ‘LGBTIQ+ youth are among the most marginalised and excluded members of society.’ Maria made these comments as an ambassador of Plan International in May 2018. This was three months after the organisation confirmed 6 cases of sexual abuse and child exploitation by its staff or associates.
Maria was an ambassador of Plan International, an organisation which confirmed 6 cases of sexual abuse and child exploitation by its staff in May 2018.
Why politics?
Maria believes that one of Ireland’s priorities at present should be to counter ‘Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia’ in Ireland. Recently, she wrote ‘we all have the right to love and be who we want, and we must encourage this narrative as often as we can.’ It appears that her running as an MEP is just another part of this strategy. Maria has little or no political experience, and her business acumen appears very much unproven.
Homosexual Lifestyle
Maria has declared herself to be a homosexual woman. She was in a relationship with another woman, TV producer Shauna Keogh, for some time after winning the Rose of Tralee. Last year, she stated that she was no longer with Shauna but was looking for somebody else.
