Tralee woman in European Parliament

GRACE Earley is a Tralee woman with proud west of Ireland links as dad, John, hails from Balla, County Mayo - a good combination you might say when facing the trials and tribulations of a busy European Parliament where Grace recently started her internship.

At 17, Grace had her first taste of parliamentary debating when attending Presentation Secondary School where her skills blossomed at a young age. During the transition year programme, Grace - along with two fellow students - went on to represent the school at the Mini European Parliament in Stormont and with the support of teachers, Grace was encouraged to participate in public debating and consequently represented the school in national competitions.

It seemed inevitable that Grace would one day go on to study Humanitarian and Applied Sciences in the University of Limerick which she completed in June of this year. Independently, Grace was among a distinguished gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa for the ‘One Young World’ summit in October, 2013 when she was a representative of O2 Ireland’s ‘Think Big’ programme. Passionate about Human Rights, Grace was in the company of many distinguished world counsellors, including Kofi Annan, Noble Laureate Muhammed Kunus, Bob Geldof, Boris Becker and Francois Pienaar.

Grace would eventually choose Ghana as the destination to complete her academic studies and she resided there for six months during 2015. Grace’s linguistic studies were further enhanced when completing a term of study in Nantes, France. On top of that, she recently received the 2016 Maxon-Browne Prize, which is awarded to the student whose final year project receives the highest grade of academic achievement.

Pictured recently receiving the award with her parents John and Maura Earley is Prof. Kelly-Holmes, Prof. Emiratus Edward Maxon Browne and Dr Joachim Fischer, School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics and UL.