It was a happy coincidence for Ireland’s new Ambassador to France that, as a Clare woman, one of the first events she hosted at the embassy was the debut Paris Fashion Week show of Kilkishen-born designer Michael Stewart. “It was actually agreed to by my fantastic predecessor, Niall Burgess, and it was just a lovely, happy coincidence,” Alison Milton told The Clare Champion with a laugh. Ireland’s new Ambassador to France and Monaco only spent the first 16 years of her life living in Shannon, but she counts herself as a proud Clare woman. She was born to parents from Roscommon and Mayo, who had returned to Ireland from Canada after her father took a job with Shannon Development in 1970. In 2015 she moved from developmental to diplomatic work, serving as Irish Ambassador to Colombia, Panama and Venezuela, and most recently, Ambassador to the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, before taking up the France job on June 15.