Our History
The Green Party was founded in 1981 by a group of people with a long-term vision for an Ireland that protected and enhanced our island’s natural environment, heritage, biodiversity and communities.
The foundation of the Green Party Ireland
The Green Party Ireland found political form in the late 1970s and early 1980s as Green parties were being established across the globe. In Ireland, the Green Party (then known as the Ecology Party of Ireland) was officially formed on the 3rd of December 1981 by a group of people with a long-term vision for an Ireland that protected and enhanced our island’s natural environment, heritage, biodiversity and communities.
Most recently, the Green Party entered government in 2020. We currently have 12 TDs and five Senators in the Oireachtas. We also have 28 elected councillors and 70 representatives working in local areas around the island. Local groups around the country play a vital role in organising meetings and events, canvassing and fundraising.
The Green Party is instrumental in passing the historic Climate Action Bill into legislation
12 Green Party TDs elected in General Election. Green Party enters Government with three Senior Ministers, four Ministers of State and four Senators
A record 49 Green Party Councillors and two MEPs elected in Local and European Elections.
The Green Party enters Government for the first time with two Senior Ministers, two Ministers of State and two Senators.
The Green Party elects 18 Councillors in the Local Elections.
Six Green Party TDs, Eamon Ryan, Ciarán Cuffe, Dan Boyle, Paul Gogarty, Trevor Sargent and John Gormley, elected in the 2002 General Election.
Two Green Party MEPs, Patricia McKenna and Nuala Ahern are elected.
The Green Party wins its first seat in Dáil Éireann, with Roger Garland in Dublin South.
The Party is renamed to the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas
The first Green Party Councillor, Marcus Counihan is elected in the Local Elections.
The Party is renamed to the Green Alliance/Comhaontas Glas
The Ecology Party of Ireland holds its first meeting at the Central Hotel, Dublin
From the Irish Times Archive: The little known story of the origins of the Green Party
The party was founded by an Englishman, Christopher Fettes, who was born in Kent in 1937, studied English and French at Trinity College Dublin, and was a teacher for nearly 40 years at Saint Columba’s College in Dublin.
RTÉ Radio One: The History of the Green Party
"If you take the argument that you've got to put the planet before politics, then you have to take the long-term view..." Most versions of the Green Party story in Ireland begin in the 1980s, tracing their evolution from a group of like-minded activists to the Ecology Party in 1981, then the Green Alliance and finally the Green Party in 1988.
