Boston Mayor’s Connemara ‘homecoming’

The first ‘Connemara’ Mayor of Boston is gearing-up for a return home to County Galway this month.

Mayor Marty Walsh, who was sworn into office on January 1, will visit Connemara and Galway City on the week beginning September 22.

Keeping true to a pledge made during his election speech, Mayor Walsh’s visit to his parents’ home communities in Connemara will be his first official visit outside of the United States.  Though he was born and reared in the Irish stronghold of Dorchester, Mayor Walsh, a son of Irish emigrants, has never lost touch with his roots.

His mother Mary – formerly Mary O’Malley – is a native of Ros Cide in Ros Muc.  His late father was John Walsh from Callowfeenish in Carna.   Marty’s father was known as John Mháirtín Tom and his mother was Mary Joe Pheadair. More than 100 people from Connemara were involved in his election campaign.

He has been involved in several campaigns here, including for the new road to Screebe and the retention of the Carna bus service. He is an ambassador for the Emigrants and Diaspora Centre Project in Carna.

A frequent visitor to Connemara from a young age, returning this month as mayor of one of the biggest cities in America will be a special occasion.

“I look forward to going back to the land where my parents were from for the first time as Mayor of the City of Boston,” he said in letters to dignitaries in Galway this week.