FINE GAEL MEP Maria Walsh has announced the birth of her first child, a baby girl named Nell Brigid.

The Midlands-North-West MEP shared the news in an Instagram post, alongside a photograph of herself with her newborn daughter and another of her parents holding a baby carrier.

“We are together and home,” Walsh wrote.

“Nell Brigid Walsh, you are loved beyond words.

“My bright, shining light – the meaning of your first name.

“My force of nature – your middle name recognising our heroic St Brigid.”

Walsh also paid tribute to her family, writing: “Our village has gathered. Mamó and Daideo already showing you the way.”

She thanked the medical team who cared for her throughout her pregnancy, as well as staff at University Hospital Galway.

“I feel so grateful, and I am in love,” Walsh added.

“Just call me Mama.”

Walsh announced in May that she was expecting her first child, having conceived through IVF using donated sperm.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1′s Brendan O’Connor show at the time, the 38-year-old said she had always wanted to become a mother, although she had not initially imagined doing so as a single parent.

“Nobody knew for a long, long time that I had been going through it,” Walsh said of her fertility journey.

In a column for The Journal later that month, Walsh wrote about the challenges of pursuing motherhood as a single woman and called for greater access to fertility treatment in Ireland.

She said she had decided to stop waiting for the “perfect” circumstances to become a mother.

“For anyone questioning whether there is only one ‘right’ way to build a family, I hope my story offers reassurance that love, commitment and community matter far more than convention ever will,” Walsh wrote.