On RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday morning, the journalist Lise Hand put it best when she said, “we’re waking up in a bright green world”.
There has been much conversation about how this local election has seen the Greens finally bounce back from the trouncing they received in the 2011 election after their catastrophic partnership with Fianna Fáil with whom they entered government in 2007.
But if you’re a 20-year-old voter now, you were just 12 when the 2011 election happened. And if you’re a 30-year-old voter, you had just hit voting age when the Greens entered into that coalition.
It’s not just about time passing, memories fading, or forgiveness, it’s about a demographic who simply don’t view the Green Party through the lens of that government, but through a bigger picture of global climate crisis, and common sense solutions about housing and sustainable living at a regional level.
This year will be seen as the year where environmentalism as mainstream politics really started to cut through. Youth-led strikes, rallies and protests calling for political action to tackle the climate crisis, the Extinction Rebellion movement, the emergence of young leaders such as Greta Thunberg, and the sentiment that young people are both taking responsibility and pushing older generations to do the same, is now being seen at a local political level in Ireland.
Once again, the political conversations that take part outside of parliaments, a youth-led drive for action, along with protest movements, is informing political change. Once again, the old-school parties are left puzzling over what was staring them in the face.
This also matters in Europe. According to the exit poll – so pinch of salt and all that – a massive 42 per cent of 18-24-year-olds voted for Ciarán Cuffe in Dublin. 29 per cent of 25-34-year-olds voted for him. Bear in mind that the highest figure next to this was Gary Gannon, who, according to the exit poll, got 14 per cent of the 18-24-year-old category. Fianna Fáil’s candidate, Barry Andrews, had minimal youth support in Dublin, at 2 per cent.
The Greens didn’t sneak seats, they were topping polls all over the place, with a massive number of first preference votes. Nearly every area in Dublin, for example, elected a Green Party councillor; William Priestly topped the poll in Rathfarnham-Templeogue, Hazel Chu topped the poll in Pembroke, along with her husband Patrick Costello who topped the poll in Kimmage-Rathmines, Una Power topped the poll in Killiney-Shankill, Michael Pidgeon topped the poll in Dublin South West Inner City, Séafra Ó Faoláin topped the poll in Blackrock, Neasa Hourigan in Dublin Central, Sophie Nicoullaud in Ballyfermot-Drimnagh, Donna Cooney in Clontarf, Lawrence Hemmings in Donaghmede, David Healy in Howth-Malahide, Joe O’Brien in Balbriggan, Ian Carey in Swords.
Roderic O’Gorman topped the poll in Castleknock, Ossian Smyth topped the poll in Dun Laoghaire, Deirdre Ní Fhloinn in Glencullen-Sandyford, Daniel Dunne topped the poll in Dundrum, Eva Elizabeth Dowling in Stillorgan, Claire Byrne topped the poll in South-East Inner City, Cuffe topped the poll in North Inner City.
It is obvious to the electorate that the Green Party stand for something, and that is tackling the biggest existential issue of our time.
But local Green Party candidates also spoke about homelessness, housing, building sustainable cities, public transport, cycling, and green spaces. There is also the strange electoral privilege of not being in power, and therefore not being sullied by the less popular decisions or the type of inaction that irritates the electorate.
Young candidates
We are also living in an age where the value of spin is decreasing, and authenticity is lauded. This is personified by the performance of Saoirse McHugh, who bolstered her campaign with a no-nonsense appearance on RTÉ’s Prime Time, and also in her other media interviews, where she came across as refreshing and real.
The Green Party quietly built a stable of smart, young candidates, many in the 20s, many of them women, whereas Fine Gael chases electability. Legacy, civil war politics, and family dynasties are increasingly irrelevant to younger voters, which will continue to be a problem for Fianna Fáil.
Around 25 per cent more women ran in this local election than in the locals in 2014. In 2014, 25 per cent of candidates were women, this year, it was 31 per cent, so that’s a 6 per cent increase. Some 31 of the Green Party’s 72 candidates were women (43 per cent).
While People Before Profit had a higher percentage of female candidates (56 per cent), as did the Social Democrats (53 per cent) and the Solidarity Party (47 per cent). Fine Gael’s female candidates made up less than a third of their national number at 29 per cent. Fianna Fáil ran just 20 per cent female candidates.
The lessons surely are that authentic, new voices who stand for something and have ideologies rooted in what is better for society as a whole are the ones getting traction.
Women, young people, and candidates with big ideas, connected. The Greens will be savouring the number of surplus votes in so many of the areas they won in, where candidates sailed past the quota. Come the general election, no doubt more candidates will be mobilised to become part of what is as much a movement as a party.