Claire D. Cronin has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
Cronin, a State Representative in Massachusetts, will be the third woman to hold the coveted diplomatic posting. An attorney, she was the first woman to serve as Majority Leader in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Cronin was nominated by President Biden last June but along with dozens of other diplomatic nominees her passage to her new job was held up by what CNN, in a report, described as "a months-long Republican-led blockade on quick consideration of the diplomatic nominations."
Added the report: "Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz had for months refused to allow quick confirmation on diplomatic nominations to protest the Biden administration's policy on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Early Saturday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, announced a deal that Cruz's legislation imposing sanctions would be debated and voted on by mid-January.....
Massachusetts state Rep. Claire Cronin was confirmed as the ambassador to Ireland..."
