Massachusetts’ relationship with Ireland is a “powerful and necessary” resource for advancing the wellbeing of and opportunity for residents in the state, Gov. Maura Healey told the Irish Senate in Dublin on Tuesday.
Healey, on her first international trade trip since taking office as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States, spoke heavily of her Irish roots during a speech before local lawmakers. Her great-grandmother left Ballinasloe, Ireland in 1912 for New York before eventually traveling north to Boston, she said.
Beyond her personal connection to the country, Healey said the economic partnership between Massachusetts and Ireland are reflected in the hundreds of companies employing thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic ocean and the billion of dollars and euros in trade and investments that are exchanged.
