Green Party (Ireland)
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| Green Party | |
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| Leader | Trevor Sargent |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | 16-17 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 |
| Political Ideology | Green politics |
| International Affiliation | Global Greens |
| European Affiliation | European Green Party |
| European Parliament Group | n/a |
| Colours | Green and Gold |
| Website | http://www.greenparty.ie/ |
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The Green Party (Irish: An Comhaontas Glas) is a green political party in Ireland. It was founded as the Ecology Party of Ireland in 1981 by Dublin teacher Christopher Fettes. The party became the Green Alliance in 1983 and in 1987 was renamed to its current title. It has succeeded in getting candidates elected to all levels of government; local, Dáil and European Parliament, and in 2007 gained its first representation in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have a system of proportional representation called the Single Transferable Vote, which gives smaller parties, such as the Green Party, more opportunity to gain representation.
The party's first electoral outing was in November 1982, when they won 0.2% of the vote in the general election of 1982. After changing their name, they contested the 1984 European Parliament elections, with their party founder winning 1.9% in the Dublin constituency. The following year they won their first election when Marcus Counihan was elected to Killarney Urban District Council during the 1985 Local Elections. The party nationally ran 34 candidates and won 0.6% of the vote. The party continued to struggle until the general election of 1989 when the again renamed party won its first seat in the national parliament, the Dáil, when Roger Garland was elected in Dublin South. In the general election of 1997 the party gained a seat when John Gormley won a seat in Dublin South East.
However, it was not until the general election of 2002 when it made a breakthrough, getting 6 TDs (Members of Parliament) elected to the Dáil with 4 % of the national vote. However, in the election to the European Parliament of June 2004, the party lost both of the European Parliament seats which it had won in 1994 and retained in 1999. In the 2004 Local Elections at county level it increased its number of councillors from 8 to 18 out of 883 and at town council level its number of councillors increased from 5 to 14 out of 744 a big breakthrough at local level for a small party. Its new councillors include Niall Ó Brolcháin, elected in Galway City and J.J. Power, elected in Naas, which, when coupled with other elected representatives in Cork, Donegal, Louth, Meath, Wicklow, Clare, Carlow and Kilkenny represents a breakout from its perceived traditional Dublin base.
Arguably, the Green Party's best-known politicians are its leader Trevor Sargent, party chairman John Gormley, and Eamon Ryan, who attempted in 2004 to gain a nomination for election as President of Ireland. The other Green Party TDs are Ciarán Cuffe, Paul Gogarty and Dan Boyle. The Green Party's deputy leader is Councillor Mary White.
The Green Party has strong links with its counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Green Party in Northern Ireland, which voted to become a region of the Irish Green Party in 2005 at its Annual Convention, and again in a postal ballot in March 2006. Brian Wilson, formerly a councillor for the Alliance Party, won the Greens' first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2007 election. Although it is a member of the European Federation of Green Parties, the Irish Green Party has adopted a notably more eurosceptic stance than is usually articulated by the Federation.
The Green Party also has a youth wing, know as Young Greens, which has several hundred members in branches throughout the country. Founded in 2002, it campaigns for protection of the environment, human rights and more funding for education. It is closely associated with youth members of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. In 2004 it became associated with the Federation of Young European Greens.
At the 2005 National Convention, party delegates voted overwhelming not to enter a pre-election pact with the other main opposition parties Fine Gael and Labour. Their reasoning for this was that participation in such an alliance would drown out their voice and deprive them of vital transfers from other left-wing parties, most notably Sinn Féin.
In a TNS/MRBI opinion poll published in The Irish Times in January 2007, the party's support doubled from 4% to 8%. The same poll placed the current Fianna Fáil/PD government on 38% support and the alternative coalition of Fine Gael/Labour on 37%, suggesting that the Green Party will hold the balance of power following this Summer's general election, putting the party in an excellent position to enter into government for the first time.
[edit] Dáil Election 2007
| Part of the Politics series on Green politics |
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| Topics |
| Organizations |
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Global Greens · Africa · Americas · Asia-Pacific · Europe |
| Principles |
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Four Pillars |
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As the 2007 General Election approaches, the party is targeting fifteen constituencies with the aim of winning at least seven seats, giving the status of a full political grouping in Dáil Éireann. The Party's support remains clustered in certain geographical areas, principally urban constituencies, which could help the party retain and gain seats. The fact that the party won new council seats and retained the seats it had in these areas along with opinion polls all through 2006 giving it 7 percent indicates that the party has a good chance of at least retaining its six Dáil, and perhaps gaining new seats. Its best chances of gaining seats are in Carlow-Kilkenny with its deputy leader Cllr Mary White and in Galway West with the Mayor of Galway Cllr Niall Ó Brolcháin. The Greens will also be fighting hard for a seat in Wicklow with Cllr Deirdre de Burca, in Dublin North Central with Cllr Bronwen Maher, in Clare with Cllr Brian Meaney, in Louth with Cllr Mark Dearey, and in Dublin Central with former MEP Patricia McKenna. The Green Party will run two candidates in Trevor Sargent's constituency of Dublin North, the second candidate being Fingal County Council Cathaoirleach Joe Corr. This will be the second time that two Green candidates have run in the same constituency in a general election (the last being in Dublin North East in 1992). Its candidates so far are as follows:
- Carlow-Kilkenny: Cllr Mary White
- Clare: Cllr Brian Meaney
- Cork East: Sarah Iremonger
- Cork North Central: Cllr Chris O'Leary
- Cork South Central: Dan Boyle TD
- Dublin Central: Patricia McKenna
- Dublin Mid West: Paul Gogarty TD
- Dublin North: Trevor Sargent TD and Cllr Joe Corr
- Dublin North Central: Cllr Bronwen Maher
- Dublin North East: Cllr David Healy
- Dublin South: Eamon Ryan TD
- Dublin South Central: Cllr Tony McDermott
- Dublin South East: John Gormley TD
- Dublin South West: Elizabeth Davidson
- Dublin West: Roderic O'Gorman
- Dun Laoghaire: Ciaran Cuffe TD
- Galway West: Cllr Niall Ó Brolcháin
- Kerry North: David Grey
- Kildare North: Cllr Shane Fitzgerald
- Kildare South: Cllr J.J. Power
- Laois-Offaly: Marie McKay
- Limerick East: Patricia Forde Brennan
- Louth: Cllr Mark Dearey
- Meath West: Brian Flanagan
- Waterford: Brendan McCann
- Wicklow: Cllr Deirdre de Burca
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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| Represented in Dáil Éireann (166): | Fianna Fáil (78) • Fine Gael (32) • Labour Party (21) • Progressive Democrats (8) • Green Party (6) • Sinn Féin (5) • Socialist Party (1) |
| Represented in Seanad Éireann (60): | Fianna Fáil (29) • Fine Gael (15) • Labour Party (5) • Progressive Democrats (5) |
| Represented in the European Parliament (13 out of 732): | Fine Gael (5) • Fianna Fáil (4) • Labour Party (1) • Sinn Féin (1†) |
| Minor parties: | Workers Party • Socialist Workers Party • Communist Party of Ireland • Christian Solidarity Party • Republican Sinn Féin |
| † Sinn Féin has a second MEP from Northern Ireland. | |
