Verona Murphy becomes first female speaker of the Irish parliament | Daily Mail Online

Verona Murphy has become the first female speaker of the Irish parliament as part of attempts to form a coalition government.Ms Murphy, an independent TD for Wexford, defeated two Fianna Fail candidates and one from Sinn Fein to win the 255,000-euro-a-year position of Ceann Comhairle.Her election is the first action taken by the new Dail which met for the first time on Wednesday morning.