Unique connection between European candidates

THE European elections this week have thrown up an extraordinary link between two dynamic young candidates, both of whom have direct connections with Eva O’Flaherty, Caherlistrane, Lisdonagh House and Achill Island.

Maria Walsh from Shrule, now running under the Fine Gael ticket, worked in Eva O’Flaherty’s birthplace just over the road from her in Lisdonagh House as a teenager, while her Green Party counterpart, Saoirse McHugh, grew up on Achill in Eva O’Flaherty’s former island home.

That building also housed the St. Colman’s Knitting Industries of Dooagh, run by Eva for half a century, and as a Cumann na mBan activist, patron of the arts, employer, and all-round go-getter, it would be fascinating to know what O’Flaherty would make of this unique coincidence.

Both Saoirse McHugh and Maria Walsh were profiled by journalist Lise Hand in a full page feature in The Times (UK) of May 15th.