Editing Green Party (Ireland) (section)

===Early years and first rise===
[[File:First meeting of Ecology Party of Ireland poster.jpg|thumb|left|Poster advertising the first ever meeting of the "Ecology Party of Ireland"]]
The Green Party began life as the ''Ecology Party'' in 1981, with [[Christopher Fettes]] serving as the party's first chairperson. The party's first public appearance was modest: the event announced that they would be contesting the [[November 1982 Irish general election|November 1982 general election]], and was attended by their seven election candidates, 20 party supporters, and one singular journalist. Fettes had opened the meeting by noting the party didn't expect to win any seats. Willy Clingan, the journalist present, recalled that "The Ecology Party introduced its seven election candidates at the nicest and most endearingly honest press conference of the whole campaign".<ref name="origins-of-the-green-party">{{cite news |last=Mullally |first=Una |date=9 June 2019 |title=The little known story of the origins of the Green Party |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-little-known-story-of-the-origins-of-the-green-party-1.3909472 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |access-date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=4 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904191509/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-little-known-story-of-the-origins-of-the-green-party-1.3909472 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Ecology party took 0.2% of the vote that year.

Following a name change to the ''Green Alliance'', it contested the [[1984 European Parliament election in Ireland|1984 European elections]], with party founder [[Roger Garland]] winning 1.9% in the Dublin constituency. The following year, it won its first election when Marcus Counihan was elected to [[Killarney|Killarney Urban District Council]] at the [[1985 Irish local elections|1985 local elections]], buoyed by winning 5,200 first preference votes as a European candidate in Dublin [[1984 European Parliament election in Ireland|the previous year]]. The party nationally ran 34 candidates and won 0.6% of the vote.

The party continued to struggle until the [[1989 Irish general election|1989 general election]] when the Green Party (as it was now named) won its first seat in [[Dáil Éireann]], when Roger Garland was elected in [[Dublin South (Dáil constituency)|Dublin South]]. Garland lost his seat at the [[1992 Irish general election|1992 general election]], while [[Trevor Sargent]] gained a seat in [[Dublin North (Dáil constituency)|Dublin North]]. In the [[1994 European Parliament election in Ireland|1994 European election]], [[Patricia McKenna]] topped the poll in the Dublin constituency and [[Nuala Ahern]] won a seat in Leinster. They retained their [[European Parliament]] seats in the [[1999 European Parliament election in Ireland|1999 European election]], although the party lost five councillors in local elections held that year despite an increase in its vote. At the [[1997 Irish general election|1997 general election]], the party gained a seat when [[John Gormley]] won a Dáil seat in [[Dublin South-East (Dáil constituency)|Dublin South-East]].

At the [[2002 Irish general election|2002 general election]], the party made a breakthrough, getting six [[Teachta Dála|Teachtaí Dála]] (TDs) elected to the Dáil with 4% of the national vote. However, in the [[2004 European Parliament election in Ireland|2004 European election]], the party lost both of its European Parliament seats. In the [[2004 Irish local elections|2004 local elections]], it increased its number of councillors at county level from eight to 18 (out of 883) and at town council level from five to 14 (out of 744).

The party gained its first representation in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007, the [[Green Party in Northern Ireland]] having become a regional branch of the party the previous year.