MARTY WALSH, THE son of emigrants from Connemara, Co Galway, arrived in Ireland this morning in his official capacity as Mayor of Boston, completing an extraordinary 60-year family odyssey.

It’s far from his first visit to Ireland, but his first official overseas trip as mayor, a position he took over last September after a run-off election victory over another Irish-American, John Connolly.

Walsh’s 10-day trip began this morning on his arrival from the United States, when he was greeted at Shannon airport by local dignitaries and held forth with reporters “as Gaeilge.”

His mother Mary, originally from Ros Muc, told the media she had been back in the Gaeltacht for the past week “to get the house ready.”

Over the next 10 days, Walsh will be meeting political and business representatives along the West coast and in Dublin – where he’ll appear on RTÉ’s Saturday Night Show – before spending some time in Carna, the birthplace of his late father John.

Read: Boston Mayor’s ‘homecoming’ is mutually beneficial for both sides of the Atlantic>

Son of Connemara emigrants Martin Walsh sworn in as mayor of Boston>