Leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryanspeaking to the media at Goverment buildings earlier this week after he announced he is stepping down as party leader. All political careers end in failure. Like all the best political clichés, this one is pithy, overworked – and wrong. Take Eamon Ryan. At the most superficial level, the leader of the Green Partywith his party at a low ebb, having just seen its two MEPs fail to win reelection and losing almost half of its council seats.
Unlike others on the left, the Greens realised that to achieve real change, they had to be in power. Their record in government shows they were right. Their first term in coalition, following the 2007 general election, was overshadowed by the financial crash, though Ryan as energy minister did advance wind power policy.