On the road with Eamon Ryan: ‘You realise we are not as bad as we seem on social media to each other’

Virginia in Co Cavan is one of those pretty preserved towns from the 18th century with a long terrace of well-upholstered houses and an impressive Protestant church set in extensive grounds.

It has not fallen completely to the telltale generic shop signs of the retail chains. A fair few of the shops on the main street can trace their origins well back into the last century. There is Fitzsimons, a newsagent and gift shop that has been in business for 106 years and is located in a former convent. Outside is a shingle advertising the Farmer’s Journal. There is a wall of old photographs near the counter. There used be a photographic studio here too. Bernie Fitzsimons says her family have archived photographs of some 1,000 townspeople going back a century.

Across the road, Loyola Arnold stands behind the counter of T Arnold, a traditional hardware shop that sells just about everything within its small dark space. It has been in business for more than a century.

Down the street there is O’Reilly’s, a newsagent and confectionery. It is a mere baby compared with the other two, having been established in 1960.

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But then, the man who founded the business, Eddie O’Reilly, still stands behind the counter at the age of 93, alongside his son, Michael O’Reilly.

That all gives a sense of a place of slow change. And its politics also has an unchanged aspect to it. The local electoral area reflects the rural feel of this part of southwest Cavan – returning predominantly councillors from the traditional big two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with the occasional nod to Sinn Féin and “gene pool” independents.

“The Greens don’t tend to do well in places like Virginia because of its rural nature,” says Michael O’Reilly.

In fact, they don’t tend to do well at all in Cavan. The party ran one or two candidates in local elections in the county in the dim and distant past. It ran none in 2014 or in 2019, though it plans to run some in the local election this summer.

It’s not a completely barren political landscape – its young candidate for Cavan-Monaghan in the 2020 general election, Tate Donnelly, pulled about 40 per cent (or 1,100 votes) from the Cavan part of the constituency, with slightly more coming from his home county of Monaghan.

But the image of the party in counties such as Cavan is not flattering. It is seen as an opponent by many farmers (who believe Green policies on emissions threaten their livelihoods and will force culls of livestock); by rural drivers (who rail against carbon tax and fuel prices and portray them as anti-road). Then there are many who live in the country who sympathise with protests over accommodation centres for asylum seekers being located in rural towns and villages.

In rural Ireland, the Greens have an image problem.

The decisions we need to make on climate are made street by street, parish by parish, field by field, and that can’t be top-down

—  Eamon Ryan

Since last summer, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has been on a quiet mission to try to correct that and address what he says are misconceptions about the party and its policies. Following a suggestion by Monaghan-born councillor Darcy Lonergan, he decided to meet every councillor in the State. To date, he has visited all but two of the 31 councils; he will get to the remaining two – Donegal and Meath – this month.

Some would describe it as a foolhardy exercise. Ryan is the Minister for several things – Climate Change, Transport, Energy, the Environment and Communications. All of them touch on rural Ireland, none more so than roads. But here’s the rub. This Minister would not be found dead cutting the ribbon on new stretches of motorway. There are very few councillors that would be with him on that one.

Unsurprisingly, the reception for him has ranged from frosty to openly hostile. The worst was Offaly, where Ryan was greeted by a barrage of criticism and heated voices over alleged neglect of the county. In Carlow, there was a dramatic shouting match, which culminated in one representative walking out angrily. The Green Party leader who is noted for his non-combative nature did not engage in the argy-bargy but smiled nervously throughout.

And so on Tuesday afternoon this week, the Minister walked into the airy chamber of Cavan County Council to face the councillors and another possible political ambush. Instead, under the chair of the council of Phil “The Gunner” Brady, it turned out to be a respectful and thoughtful engagement between the members and the Ministers, although there were few points of agreement. It made the encounter “the best yet” according to a person in the know.

In his opening words, Ryan made a pitch that tried to dispel the narrative of farmers versus Greens.

“There is no one from my side, the Greens, engaged in finger-pointing or blame; or putting the farmers down as the key culprits behind climate change.

“Farmers are changing. There has been a change in the use of fertilisers ... Usage has dropped by 27 per cent in the past two years.

“There is a premium for going organic. As a country we rely on ‘origin green’ and that in reality is the biggest threat facing Irish agriculture. We can sell butter in the US at twice the prices but that is at risk if we are not ‘origin green’ in everything we do.”

He spoke of the need for clean water, clean energy and for more sustainable transport, even in rural Ireland. He described the Local Link bus services, with new routes, making public transport available to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country.

Most of the subsequent discussion focused on roads. As it happened, Virginia was first on the agenda with Fine Gael Councillor TP O’Reilly asking when the bypass of the town would be approved. Ryan said the project was right up there as a priority and there was the need to take 11,000 car movements a day out of what he described as a “stunning 19th-century market town”.

Councillors were sceptical. “I have been listening to the plans about the Virginia bypass since I was eight,” was Independent Shane P O’Reilly’s rejoinder.

Otherwise it was about budgets for local roads, local improvement schemes, afforestation and the argument of local councillors that the controversial North-South Interconnector should go underground when passing through Cavan (Ryan responded that the engineers had advised that would be nigh impossible to do technically).

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Another big item was the need for park-and-ride facilities around the county for the many hundreds of people who did the long-distance commute into Dublin each day. Ryan was also reminded about the Border status of the county. Cllr Patricia Walsh told him that carbon tax and restrictions on solid fuel had allowed “operators from a different jurisdiction to go door-to-door selling” Northern-originated solid fuel.

The most sparky contribution was from Shane P O’Reilly, who described himself as Ryan’s “greatest critic”. One of his criticisms concerned the NCT tests. He claimed that 50 per cent of cars were failing the NCT on “ridiculous items” unrelated to safety. He also said that Ryan’s drive to reduce carbon emissions was forcing people in rural Ireland to have “three courses for a starter”.

“I will continue to call out what I see as not in the interest of rural Ireland,” he declared.

“Politics is about competing views or ideas and it can be done with respect,” Ryan responded. “I am very glad to be here to meet you in person ... It’s the best way of learning and maybe sometimes changing perceptions.”

Speaking afterwards, Ryan explained why he had decided to visit each council. “The decisions we need to make on climate are made street by street, parish by parish, field by field, and that can’t be top-down. That has to be bottom-up. Local government has a critical role.”

Was he also trying to dispel the trope that the Greens and rural Ireland were like water and oil? “It’s there as a trope but I don’t think it’s true. The best way of countering it is not lecturing from a distance [but rather] sitting down with people and meeting them.”

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And what about the flinty and hostile responses he met in some councils? If others have seen conflict, he hasn’t. “People have different views but it’s very civil ... One of the benefits of going out and meeting people is you realise that we are not as bad as we seem on social media to each other. In real life people get on.”

He also rejected the notion the Greens cannot win electorally in rural Ireland, saying the party has councillors all over the country and will run candidates in every constituency and every ward come June. It will take more than this tour of councils, however, to persuade rural voters that the Greens are on their side. Still, Ryan can take some consolation that he is not the most unpopular Minister for Transport ever with councillors.

“At least you [answered questions],” quipped Shane P O’Reilly. “Shane Ross visited the Council but he ran out of the door and he did not answer any questions.”

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