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.

Photo of the Green Party outside Leinster House in the 1990s

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 four Senators in the Oireachtas, two MEPs, and two MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) in Northern Ireland. We also have over 50 elected councillors 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 History in the Media
Green Party founder Christopher Fettes

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.

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Green Party candidates stand with their election posters for the 2009 Local and European Elections

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. 

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