Ballinagore students grill MEP Walsh

Thomas Lyons

It’s Tuesday afternoon in St Patrick’s NS, Ballinagore, and the pupils have concluded their lunch break and are making their way back to their class.

Standing in the corridor is a glamorous, friendly woman. Her pink jacket matches the livery of a vehicle in the school car park. Emblazoned across the side of that car is ‘Marie Walsh MEP’.

The Fine Gael political representative is there to meet pupils from third to sixth class, as part of their work towards the school’s first Blue Star award.

“For everybody who hasn’t heard of me or met me, I’m really, really delighted to meet you,” she says. “I’m a member of the European Parliament.”

The National School Blue Star Award is an educational initiative in Ireland that challenges primary school pupils to learn about the European Union (EU) through creative projects. Managed by European Movement Ireland, it aims to foster an early understanding of European cultures and how the EU affects the lives of Irish citizens

“I’m going to share a little bit about the work I do,” the MEP commences.

It’s a measured presentation, one tailored to the audience, informative and engaging. Given that Ms Walsh has been an elected representative since securing an EU Parliament seat for the Midlands Northwest constituency in May 2019, that is no surprise.

She takes delight in talking to the children, and they respond in kind. This isn’t a fluffy light engagement. The young pupils of St Patrick’s NS are more than willing to put the MEP through her paces.

Starting out with migration, a topic close to Maria’s lived experience, she touches on a wide variety of topics, many instigated by the schoolchildren.

“Anybody born outside of Ireland?” she inquires. “The reason I ask that question is I was born in the United States of America in a city called Boston.

“When I was seven, my siblings and my parents and I moved from Boston to a small rural community just like here, to a place called Shrew in County Mayo. My siblings and I were the first, what we would call, blow-ins. People didn’t know us, we didn’t grow up in the area, we were new students. Now, in that same national school, there are more than 20 different nationalities, which I think is so cool.”

The metamorphosis of the ethnicity of the Irish population is not as pronounced in Ballinagore as it is in urban centres, yet the message has context, the school has new Irish and the war on the fringe of the European continent has displaced one young pupil into this group.

The visiting politician tells the group about her workload. From the people she represents, “it’s a huge constituency”; to what she does, “every week, I spend time in Brussels, Belgium, where I work three or four days a week, doing my work as a legislator. So I write law, I debate, I negotiate”.

“I also get questions from students like yourselves. I bring them back to my work to say, what can we do to make things better? I can’t just do it with the focus of Irish students. I also have to make sure to consider we are part of the EU project, which has 27 member states. So 27 countries are working together in a peaceful way.”

In all those interactions the young people show their preparations for the Blue Star award. They pre-empted the size of the union, the year Ireland joined, and seat of the parliament.

Ms Walsh brings home to the pupils how representing them works: “I think our core job is to be of service to the community. And for me, my community is in 15 counties as well as across the EU member states. So what does it mean to serve the community? We write laws. We try to make sure there’s better parkways, greenways, for students like yourselves.”

At that point the MEP hit on a topic that resonated with a number of the students: farming. She spoke of the importance of that issue to all gathered in the school hall.

“Sometimes we think we’re not a part of farming, yet we eat a few times a day, so we’re as much a part of the farming community as farmers. We help and support farmers. I particularly support female farmers and young farmers.

“That’s a really important thing for me. I also look at women’s rights.”

There was a visceral reaction among the girls of the class when Ms Walsh pointed out that a gender pay gap still exists in 2026: “In some sectors, in some jobs, you get paid 13% less. So every euro a male would make, you would make anything between 87 cents and 90 cents.”

Concluding her presentation, she opened the discussion to the floor, and that was where the pupils got their chance to shine. On being invited up, they stood before the group and asked their questions.

The first was from Rory, who we found out lives on a beef farm: “What do you do for the farmers?”

A potted version of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and the work elected representatives have in budgeting to support the feeding of 451 million people across its 27 member states was laid out. If Ms Walsh was comfortable with her footing, then a follow-up question from Robert about the EU-Mercosur trade agreement showed this was no easy audience.

“How many member states do you think want the Mercosur deal. It’s 22 out of 27 member states want it to happen. The remaining five member states, like ourselves, then have to work really hard to make sure things like what? Safeguards.”

A future journalist named Juno made sure of the follow-up: “Do you like your job?”

“I love my job. I love doing what I do. It’s really hard, though.” June wanted more details: “What do you like about your job?”

“I get to do things like this. I get to meet a lot of people. I get to see parts of the world that I never thought I would see. I get to work on things that I hope will make a difference. I work on things that are hard to explain like the previous question about agriculture funding.”

Then came the really tough part: “Now, be honest on this question. Which is your favourite school?” the young inquisitor asked.

“I mean, this is a pretty good school,” Ms Walsh replied, but Juno demanded clarity: “So, this is your favourite school.”

“This is my favourite school,” the politician acquiesced.

Next Oisín stepped up to ask: “What’s your take on Donald Trump?”

Diplomacy was employed: “I don’t agree with his stance on a lot of things,” she started, continuing: “I have to respect the fact that over 70 million people voted for him.”

One of the most topical questions came from Arthur, who queried: “Do you wish to expand the EU in the future? And if so, what country?”

“We have Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and potentially Albania. I would hope we would have the likes of Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine come in at some point in the not too distant future.”

The quality of the questions coming from the young people was impressive. Siofra, Adam, Hayley, Rosia, Amy, Tyler, Peter, Ivy and Eleanor all posed probing queries. From the price of fertiliser, to the fuel crisis, to how many tattoos (seven), all the requests for information were answered.

Even one of the final questions by Sean, who asked her what she thought of Charlie Kirk, was handled in a measured fashion, speaking about how we test our own convictions through discussion and by engaging with people we enhance our critical faculties.

The biggest takeaway for the visit by MEP Maria Walsh to St Patrick’s NS, Ballinagore wasn’t how much the politician knew about her job, but how much the students knew about the world.