Maria Walsh (born 11 June 1987) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since July 2019.

[8][9][10][11] During her time as the reigning Rose of Tralee, Walsh met with US President Barack Obama in the White House on St. Patrick's Day 2015.

She was the third of four successful candidates; Walsh placed behind her Fine Gael colleague Mairead McGuinness and Independent Luke "Ming" Flanagan, and ahead of Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy.

[16] In October 2019, Walsh, alongside fellow members of Fine Gael Mairead McGuinness, Frances Fitzgerald and Seán Kelly, voted against an EU resolution to increase the number of vessels providing search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

Walsh said she did in fact support more search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean but cited an amendment inserted into the resolution which would have mandated that radar information would be shared among all vessels in the Mediterranean, a provision that Walsh suggested would backfire by tipping-off human smugglers, helping them avoid the authorities.

The veto did not pass, but fellow Irish MEPs such as the Green Party's Ciarán Cuffe praised her for her actions.

[21] In July 2021 Walsh supported the European Commission's legal action against Hungary and Poland over their attempts to introduce laws concerning the LGBT Community there.

Walsh stated "In the two years that I've been elected, we have had a number of resolutions: one being against what Poland had done in terms of creating these LGBTI free zones.

Again, and most recently with the Hungarian changes in their legislation that is anti-everything the EU stands for in terms of values and principles such as treating everyone equal and fair.

Walsh also announced she would be attending a pride march in Budapest, with the goal of demonstrating to the Hungarian LGBT community that the EU stood by them.