Maria Steen

Imagine someone who is good at building things and also good at talking about important ideas! That's Maria Steen. She's a barrister, which means she's a lawyer who speaks in court. She's also been involved in big discussions in Ireland about what makes a family and important rules for people. She's like a super-smart person who cares a lot about her country's rules.

Maria Steen has been part of groups that talked about some really big questions. For example, there was a time when people in Ireland voted on whether two grown-ups of the same gender could get married. Maria was part of a group that didn't think that should happen.

Later, there was another vote about whether women could have an abortion. Maria was also part of a group that didn't want that to be allowed.

More recently, Maria was involved in talking about how families are defined and about the jobs that people do at home. There were votes to change some old rules. Maria's group wanted to keep the rules the way they were. It’s like deciding if the rules for a game should stay the same or change. She believes in certain ways of thinking about these important things.

Guess what? Maria Steen even tried to become the President of Ireland! That's a very important job.

To run for president, you need a certain number of people to say you can be a candidate. She needed 20 people from a special group called the Oireachtas to sign her name. Sadly, she was just a little bit short, only two signatures away from being able to run.

It shows she really wanted to help lead her country!