Long-time Tipperary resident votes in her first US Presidential election at age of 85

While this country prepares for a General Election, 85-year-old long-time Nine-Mile-House resident Maureen Power voted in the US Presidential Election last week.

It was the American born grandmother’s first time to vote in the election and she proudly cast her postal ballot for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, October 16.

She is one of thousands of US ex-pats around the world casting their votes early in the hotly contested race between Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump. The main polling day is Tuesday, November 5.

Maureen, whose maiden name is Dolan, is originally from New York. Her daughter Ethel, who arranged for her to secure the postal ballot, says her mother came to Ireland at the age of 10 because her own mother was very ill.

She left the US to attend school here and live near her grandparents who were farmers from Carrigduff near Granard in county Longford.

After attending an Irish speaking boarding school in Granard, Maureen trained as a nurse in Whittington Hospital in London.
She met her future husband, Paddy Power, a dairy farmer from Mangan, Nine-Mile-House at a nurses’ dance while living and working in London.

Nine-Mile-House became her new home where she and Paddy raised their family. Her beloved husband sadly passed away four years ago.

Ethel says her mother was a founding members of Grangemockler’s Camphill Community and over the years fostered numerous children including several with special needs. Her eldest foster child, Sarahjane, now resides at Camphill Grangemockler.

Despite spending most of her life in Ireland, Ethel points out her mother retained her American citizenship and her American passport has always been in date.
S

he says her mother was “overjoyed” to be given the opportunity to vote in the Presidential Election of her home country.