Green Party

Green Party, political party founded in 1981 to promote an environmental agenda in the Republic of Ireland.

History

The Ecology Party of Ireland, the forerunner of the current Green Party, was formed in December 1981 in Dublin with about 40 members. A convention in March 1982 established the party’s basic principles, and in November the party fielded seven candidates in the general election, winning an average of 1 percent of the vote in the constituencies contested. The following year the party was renamed Green Alliance/Comhaontás Glas. It first won representation in local elections in 1985, when it took a seat on the Killarney Urban District Council. A small minority of the Alliance, who eschewed the electoral process in favour of activism, left the party in 1986. In 1988 Green Alliance changed its name again to its current designation to make clear that it was a political party, and in 1989 it achieved its first major success when Roger Garland was elected to the Dáil (lower house of Parliament) for South Dublin. Thirteen councillors were elected in the next set of local elections in 1991, most of them in Dublin. The Greens formed a coalition, the Civic Alliance, with the Labour Party and other parties to run the Dublin city council, and a Green Party member later served a year as lord mayor. Its biggest success came in elections for the European Parliament in 1994, when it won two seats and its Dublin candidate topped the poll, collecting almost 15 percent of the vote. This apparent breakthrough has not, however, carried over to national elections. The party increased its Dáil representation to two seats in 1997, and in 2002 it captured six seats with nearly 4 percent of the national vote, though it remained well short of achieving significant power. In the 2007 elections the Green Party again won six seats and subsequently joined the coalition government headed by Fianna Fáil; it was the first time the Greens had been in government.

The Irish economy was rocked by the worldwide financial collapse in 2007–08, and a government attempt to rescue Ireland’s banks caused the public deficit to skyrocket. Austerity measures imposed by Fianna Fáil prime minister Brian Cowen were opposed by Green members of the ruling coalition. The Greens (whose electoral future already appeared to have been hinted at by losses in local council elections in 2009) officially withdrew from the coalition in January 2011, forcing an early election. In the polling on February 25, 2011, the Green Party was crushed, losing all of its seats in the Dáil, and party leaders began the process of rebuilding.

Policy and structure

The party’s central concerns have been environmental protection through the conservation of scarce resources and the decentralization of power. The Greens also have opposed Ireland’s membership in the European Union, mainly because of perceived threats to the country’s traditional neutrality.

The Ecology Party was organized as a conventional party, based on local branches. In accordance with party doctrine that decisions should be made at the lowest effective level and that individual participation should be maximized, these local branches became autonomous groups in the Green Alliance and Green Party. These groups send delegates to a National Council for some decisions. There is also an annual convention that all members may attend. All members may also attend selection conventions for their constituencies. Policy is made by expert groups subject to approval by the National Council.

At the end of the 1990s, support for the party was still largely confined to Dublin and its environs and tended to be greater among the young and more affluent.