Wexford’s Green voice has come on to the table
THE Green wave didn’t quite reach the Wexford coast during General Election 2020 as Green party candidate Paula Roseingrave, a psychologist who lives in the north of the county in Coolgreany, was eliminated on the fifth count.
But with an impressive 2,584 total votes and just over 2,000 first preference votes, having been a late candidate running just over a two week campaign that was poster-less, Paula said that running in the election has been an education.
It all began when Paula was selected to take the baton during the second week of the campaign, after long standing environmentalist and last year’s by-election candidate for the party Karin Dubsky from Ballymoney, stepped aside after two days of campaigning for personal reasons.
Speaking at the count centre on Sunday, Paula Roseingrave said the future will involve building new relationships.
‘It’s going to take some time, particularly with the farming community. We met them this time and we are singing from the same hymn book, we just aren’t on the right page yet but we are going to get there.
‘It has begun and this is the birth of rural candidates in the Green party’.
Karin Dubsky was keen to congratulate Paula, and she there needs to be a breakthrough for a greener Wexford going forward.
‘The momentum has started, but there is a perception that the Green party is an urban party. Once that breakthrough comes and rural greens get in, the policies will reflect more of the whole nation and more people will vote Green’.
Given the Sinn Fein surge, Paula said that all are hopeful now that green policies are kept in mind.
‘Whoever goes up on our behalf now for Wexford, we hope that they will fly the flag for us. We’d like to think that we can help them to do that’.
Paula said that she ran to give the people the option to vote Green.
‘I’m so appreciative that they did vote for me, but there wasn’t enough time to get to know me, not enough time to go door to door. It was a matter of engaging people on the streets and on the coast. We had a very small team but I’d like to think that we engaged people.
‘I came from my heart on this about wanting a green future for my children and their children, what’s why I entered at the end of the day.
‘I’m very concerned about what I’ve read and heard about climate change, from UN and EU reports. We have a window of opportunity that is closing and that’s why we have to use these next ten years to make it the green decade’.
Paula admitted that this election was about bread and butter issues.
‘I saw a lot of people flick me aside. When peoples’ bread and butter issues aren’t being dealt with, they have got to engage that first. It’s a hierarchy of needs issue’.
Going forward, Paula said that she will continue with the party. ‘I’ve been educated in the last three weeks and what I’ve learned is that voluntary groups are filling in the gap left by the state, from mental health to sustainability. Young people are engaged but what’s missing is the understanding of nature and the ecology. Now I hope I’m going to be accepted into the tribe of Green Wexford and that I can work from there’.