History shows there’s more than one shade to Greens

By the time you read this, we will be close to, or even past, the deadline for the three parties involved in Government negotiations to reach agreement. And I could be wrong, but the way that things have been going so far, I would not be surprised if the deadline will be broken.

Like so many other sets of negotiations, we have had plenty of false dawns. So far, I think about three deadlines have been missed, including last Friday and Tuesday of this week.

Besides all the laborious stuff – the draft of the programme for government is already 100 pages and rising – there is an added complication for the Greens, after deputy leader Catherine Martin challenged the leadership of Eamon Ryan.

The Greens have been quick this week saying: ‘Ah, it’s not as serious as it looks. We are mature and don’t let things like that take our eye from the goal. We are not going to have a bloodbath like other parties.’

If you believe that, you still believe in the tooth fairy.

The truth is, no matter how united a face the party has presented, the brutal fact is the Greens are as prone to personality battles, splits and divides as any other party.

Most people in the party would hope it won’t affect them in the same way as other parties. And it is true that policy is hugely important.

But for a minority at least in the party, there is a personality battle revolving around Eamon Ryan’s leadership as well as an ideological battle on coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. And that has had a little bit of toxicity to it.

The party has had divisions galore since it was formed in the early 1980s. It’s a bit the same now but a modern iteration of it.

Then, it was the fundamentalists versus the realists. That panned out as a battle between those who wanted no compromise whatsoever when it came to the environment, versus those who were willing to compromise, to get into power and get at least something done to prevent more environmental harm.

These days the base of the party is broader. There is an environmental wing of the party and then there is the social wing, those interested in social issues like direct provision, abortion services and the liberal agenda of other left and centre-left parties.

There is also a hardish left wing which is anti-capitalist which finds itself at odds with the centrist and pragmatic wing.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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