"Young Greens" largest political party in trinity

Chaos-Engine

I joined the Greens during freshers week in trinity this week. At their reception I discovered to my suprise that they are the largest political party/socity in Trinity. Beating FF and SF which usually dominate in most uni's... Kühl

Typedef

Really the Green Party are the largest?
I'm impressed, also I'm curious what prompted you to decide to join the Green Party? Funnily enough I had been thinking of doing much the same thing.
What I like about the Irish Green Party is that it hasn't simply toed the line with the European Greens on Nice, that said I don't agree with everything the Green Party says, still the main reason I currently would consider myself a Green Party voter is their stance on the environment and the Nice Treaty (which I won't go into here).

It's good to hear of people getting active on Environmental issues, rather then fence sitting or saying I'd like to do something but I can't/won't/don't have the time/couldn't be bothered.

Typedef

Keeks

<sarcasm>
Wow. The Green Party are the biggest political party in a college. Would never have tought that. I wonder why that can be?
</sarcasm>

But seriously I too am interested to know why did you join the Green Party? The Greens are propably one of the more straight up parties. I still won't join a Political party for the simple reason it puts limitations on your views. You kinda expected to conform to a certain ideology, to toe the party line.

I expect the reason people do join parties is becasue they all have similar view. i on the other hand don't and have yet to meet a person let alone a political party who has similar views to myself.

DadaKopf

The Green Party is the political future or Ireland, that's why.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DadaKopf

Their closer links to Sinn Féin has everything to do with building a proper opposition to the major parties in the Dáil. Both parties are focused on a left wing social agenda, it just happens that one is linked to a paramilitary so while there's a crossover of policies and overall ideology in some respects, the GP's links to SF have more to do with political pragmatism in the Dáil rather than compromising their ideology.

While you're free to lose confidence in them because of this, I don't think it's fair. The GP are the only party I can see who is genuinely putting forward workable, sustainable policies not just for the environment but for society, the economy and democratic politics in Ireland.

While many of their policies are actually being implemented by the civil-service and other institutions already, I'd feel much happier having a party in power that would genuinely pursue those policies and I don't think the GP has compromised itself at all. They're still the most advanced party in Ireland today - unfortunately they're short on resources.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Typedef

I think it is legitimate for Left wing parties like the Greens and Sinn Fein to form a parlimentary alliance, if it achieves a common goal for them and their constituants (which is their job after all). I'm glad as a Green Party Voter (for now) and as an environmentalist that the Green/Sinn Fein parlimentary alliance has made said alliance into the second biggest opposition group, because without such an alliance the parties individually would be too small to put questions to the Taoiseach for example.

Thus the alliance is good for the Green Party & Sinn Fein and since the Green's have pro-environmental policies, it can only ultimately be good for the environment.

Aside

Kim Tae Woo?

Hey did you see the sign on the top of this forum that said 'dead troll feeding troff'*

*Note don't feed the trolls

seamus

I vote greens, but only because they are the party with goals closest to mine. I do disagree with them on plenty of issues, such as Nice, but at the end of the day, they appeal to me more than any of the other parties, mainly because, as others said, they're 'straight up', and they seem very committed to their beliefs. And yes, I'm a college student

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DadaKopf

daveirl: Without getting into an argument about the legitimacy of political violence, regular or paramilitary, the working relationship between the GP and SF has been kept in its box. It's a question of achieving a limited, clearly specified goal in the interest of the greater good. That goal is, specifically, to win more equitable conditions for the smaller parties and independents. The interest of the greater good is that of more equitable and effective political representation in the Dáil.

I don't think that kind of alliance has affected either party's credibility or legitimacy. I think its an alliance that transcends this problem.

So long as the working relationship is limited to that realm, the GP remains unaffected by this relationship. However, I can understand how you see it as giving SF greater legitimacy - if they can be seen as winning more equitable democratic representation, they'll be seen as the agents of that change, which isn't exactly honest of them since they're linked to political violence. But in response to that, I'd still say there's sufficient distance between the GP and SF to allay your concerns due to the limited nature of their working relationship.

I think it's important not to lose sight of the common good. Which brings me back to the GP as the political future of Ireland, which is a little closer to topic. What does anyone think about their chances/ability to lead the country in a coalition?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Planet Potato

Originally posted by DadaKopf
The Green Party is the political future or Ireland, that's why.

Not likely. Student politics tend to be dominated by the 'radical' parties. It's easy to scream about redistributing wealth when you have none, or advocating the overthrow of capitalist systems when you don't have a family to feed that relies on your job.

Once people grow up, most will move to more mainstream parties (unless the Green party shifts in that direction). The Greens do have a good opportunity to damage the labour parties electoral base, and do some damage to left wing FF, but frankly they will always be a small minority party.

DadaKopf

That's my point. I don't think the Green Party is a 'student party' in the same way the SWP or Socialist Party is. So far, opposition to FF and FG is very fragmented and this presents a problem for aspiring parties - each party tends to represent a specific section of society. The Green Party has extended its appeal although they're still most powerful in urban middle-class areas.

Nevertheless, with their performance in the last election, and with an increased profile and growing acceptance of the wisdom of their policies (sustainability, integrated living becoming common currency), I can see people beginning to perceive them as the genuine political vanguard of Ireland. What they have to do is ensure FF and FG don't just out-green the Greens by ripping off their policies thereby sending them back to the political frontier, being once again labelled as just more loony radicals. But this is all a little dramatic.

One other sign of hope is the general realisation in Ireland that the Green lobby is quite powerful in the rest of Europe. As we begin to look beyond the UK as a point of reference, as we look to Europe more, we'll realise this and the Irish Greens will benefit from this immensely.

If you actually read the Green Party's manifesto, I think you'll find their policies to be very sensible and down to earth. You won't find them declaring their desire to crush capitalism or to eat babies.

aine

I and a number of people who voted for them last time won't vote for them next time because they seem to be willing to have a working relationship with Sinn Féin.

while i cant say im entirely pleased about the working arrangement the green party have entered into with sinn fein....i really cant see any other party on the Irish political spectrum that comes even close to representing me! so ill probably continue to support their candidates!

Gael

I think one of the greatest watersheds for the Green Party and a indication for their longevity is that they finally got a seat outside Dublin. The next big one is to get a seat in a primarily rural constituency.
And for anyone who thinks the Nice Treaty thing has damaged them you might want to remember that they opposed Nice from the start and the big movement of people who helped pass the Nice Treaty second time round didn't seem to punish them for opposing it the first time at the ballot box. And as Mary Harney herself said, the elctorate has a short term memory, or words to that effect.