Swedish Ambassador receives special welcome in Mullingar
Síofra Grant
“It’s the best thing about being an ambassador, to make connections with people and here about the interests and ambitions of this community.”
Those were the words of Her Excellency Inger Buxton, Swedish Ambassador to Ireland, during her first visit to Westmeath following the county’s pairing to Sweden.
As part of Ireland taking on the EU presidency, the State will pair the nations of the European Union with the counties of Ireland. Westmeath has been given the honour of pairing with Sweden.
"For me to come out and discover a new county and to meet people working on all the different levels is really important," Her Excellency Buxton said. "And to see this beautiful county with the natural environment and the heritage that you have.
“But also in how you see the European Union, what's important for a county like Westmeath and the people here, when it comes to the EU Presidency and so on.”
Ambassador Buxton also touched on the historic connections between Ireland and Sweden: “We have had connections going way back between our countries going back centuries. We had the Vikings from Scandinavia coming here.
“But then through the centuries there have been more connections, there are people that are Swedish who have settled here and you have Irish people, as we were told today, settling in Sweden so I think we have a rich exchange."
Ambassador Buxton made her way down to Mullingar Library for an event held by Westmeath County Council, and Mullingar Soroptimists alongside Irish Ambassador to Sweden, Her Excellency Barbara Jones.
Ambassador Jones addressed the All Saints students with great enthusiasm saying, “I work for you in Sweden as the Irish Ambassador. The best part of the job is I get to meet young people, and to meet young people in Sweden it’s very joyful.
“To be from Ireland and meeting young people from my own country here in this great building makes me very happy.”
The event kicked off with a talk given by County Librarian, Paula Leavy McCarthy who welcomed the two diplomats on behalf of the Library. I’m delighted to welcome Ambassadors Buxton and Jones to Westmeath Libraries. I was lucky enough to pay a visit to Sweden in 2025 on an Erasmus funded trip.
“This was under the libraries development unit of the local government management agency to visit libraries across the country. And it was very clear to me how libraries are embedded as core components of life in Sweden.”
Following Paula, Sarah McCormack of the Mullingar Soroptimists took to the podium. During her speech she revealed that, like Ireland, Sweden has a deep history with the Soroptimists, establishing their first chapter just a decade after Ireland, in 1948.
Sarah took the opportunity to tell Ambassador Buxton a little bit about what being a Soroptimist means. She addressed the Ambassador saying, “I thank you for giving us the opportunity to share a bit of information with you in regards to the committee.
“When I heard about the EU presidency and the twinning of the counties as part of that I looked to see who Westmeath would be twinned with.
“I found out it was Sweden, then I found out that Sweden has a strong Soroptimist connection.”
Sarah told the story of Soroptimists International. Where it began, when it came to Ireland . She also highlighted Soroptimists Ireland’s key goal at the moment, which is beginning light to the evergrowing and insidious industry of Human trafficking. She also complimented Sweden on their position as the leading country for Gender Equality on the EU’s index.
“We’re in sixth place, you might say that’s not so bad but when you actually consider that we only hold 25% of Dáíl seats, where big decisions are made, where the money is assigned. And we’re only 25% of those seats, at CEO level in our country we’re just 19% and at the senior executive level, we’re at 32%.
“In Sweden you’re up at 48% and you’re the leader in relation to senior executive posts. Another interesting thing is that you’re actually the highest in the world happiness report. We actually come in the top 15 and, I’ll draw you in and say that maybe if there were more women in the CEO posts and the labour market making the decisions and in the roles, there could be a happier community here in Ireland.”
Following Sarah’s presentation, it was time for the students of All Saints National School to present a little surprise they’d been working on to the Swedish Ambassador. The students had collectively worked on three acrostic poems using the words Sweden and Ireland. Two of the youn people presented earlier drafts of the poem. One was made up of the word Sweden and the other of both Ireland and Sweden.
Ikea made an appearance in both pieces which received a laugh from almost everyone in attendance. Finally, All Saints student Leo took to the stage and recited the final product. It received great applause and even more so when he presented a copy of the poem to Ambassador Buxton on behalf of his entire class.
On top of the poem, Paula Leavy McCarthy presented the two women with their own copies of the Children of Lír which has a surprising connection with Swedish folklore: “The transformation of people into swans is a well known Scandinavian legend such as the Swan Maiden.
“And there’s also a famous legend in Ireland called the Children of Lír, a story with which Westmeath has a particularly close bond due to the location of one of the lakes in the story, Lough Derrevaragh.”
Ambassadors Buxton and Jones were quite taken with the books, which featured stunning illustrations of the Irish landscape and characters from the tale.
Books and literature was a focal point of the event, a focus that culminated perfectly when Her Excellency Barbara Jones presented two copies of a book on the Irish EU presidency to the pupils of All Saints National School, who she had a great rapport with throughout the event.