Clodagh Finn: The many lives of ‘a giant in Irish tourism’

Eileen O'Mara Walsh and artist Owen Walsh on a ferry to Clare Island in Clew Bay in the 1960s. Picture courtesy of Eoghan O'Mara Walsh

She had a private audience with Pope John XXIII, met the “father of black nationalism” and, as a young businesswoman and single mother, organised Princess Grace’s visit to Ireland, yet few of those things come to mind when Eileen O’Mara Walsh’s name is mentioned.

When she died, three years ago this week, the obituaries recalled “a giant in Irish tourism”. She was certainly that, but this woman whose light was extinguished at the height of the pandemic was also a true Renaissance woman. And like so many others who died during that locked-down time, we were denied a full celebration of a remarkable life.