Ireland waits on Mayor Walsh

In what is expected to be a triumphal return to the birthplace of his parents, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh will head for Ireland this month. It will be his first out of country visit since his election last November.

The mayor leaves Boston for Shannon on Thursday night, Sept. 18 for a ten-day visit to the Emerald Isle. His itinerary includes five days with his Irish relatives in Connemara in his parents’ home villages of Rosmuc and Carna. Walsh plans visits to Dublin, Donegal, and Derry, and will make a presentation at a Belfast conference on September 25.

After the Belfast event, he will return to Galway and spend the weekend with his family, said mayoral spokesperson Kate Norton. “The overall goal of this trip is to support Boston’s economic development through building relationships and strengthening our commercial and cultural link with Ireland,” Norton said.