President Barack Obama has nominated Dublin-born Samantha Power to serve as the United State’s ambassador to the United Nations. His pick is paired with the nomination of current U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as National Security Adviser.

Both women are already drawing heat from the American right wing. Her nomination requires U.S. Senate confirmation.

POWER, AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

I like Power for two more reasons in addition to her Irish roots.

First, she worked as a journalist and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her book on U.S. foreign policy response to genocide. Second, her first stop in America at age nine in 1979 was to my hometown of Pittsburgh. (I was 20, attending the University of Pittsburgh.)

According to a Boston Globe story, Power recalled arriving in America wearing a red, white, and blue shirt and quickly trying to stifle her Irish accent. “For the next three months, I came home from school every day… and I sat in front of mirrors for hours straining to drop my brogue so that I, too, could quickly speak and be American,” she said.

More U.S. – Ireland – Northern Ireland politics

As reported last month by Irish Central, Obama isn’t expected to name a new U.S. Ambassador to Ireland until at least September. The pick is traditionally made around St. Patrick’s Day.

Before then, Obama is to visit Belfast and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland on June 17-18 for the G-8 summit.