Connemara man’s gift of the gab helps Boston’s Mayoral hopeful harness Hispanic vote

The Bostonian campaigning to be the next Mayor of the city needed a Spanish speaker to help him harness the Hispanic vote…..so the obvious choice was to turn to a Connemara native from the same townland as his mother!

Marty Walsh’s campaign team – currently hitting the phones to persuade citizens to support their man – were encountering a language problem with so many residents unable to speak or understand English.

So the team went in search of a Spanish speaker – and found one….from Connemara!

Mike Newell is a native of Ros Cide in Ros Muc – and as it happens Marty Walsh’s mother, Mary, hails from that same townland.   Mike has lived in the US since 1976 and is also President of Cumann na Gaeilge – the Irish language Association in Boston. 

Tom Conroy, who is also from Ros Muc, was already part of the Walsh campaign team who spends evening after evening either knocking at doors or calling up prospective voters on the phone.  

“We soon noticed that we could not continue some phone conversations because of the language barrier,” he said. 

“I suggested we ask my neighbour from home, Mike Newell to join us. Mike is fluent in Spanish with degrees in the subject from the University of Massachusetts.”

Marty Walsh – whose father was from Carna and mother from Ros Muc – has a Spanish speaker with him on the campaign trail but Mike is the voice on the phone when English is not registering. 

The first round of voting is on September 24 and the two candidates with the highest votes in the Primary will go onto the election proper on November 5.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.