Green councillor confirms defection to FF

Prominent Green Party member Brian Meaney, one of the party’s three remaining county councillors, has confirmed his application to join Fianna Fáil has been accepted.

Last week, the member of Clare County Council confirmed he had resigned from the Greens and applied to join Fianna Fáil.

Yesterday, Mr Meaney confirmed that Fianna Fáil had accepted his application and said he looked forward to representingthe party at Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council level.

Prior to confirmation that Fianna Fáil had accepted the application, Cllr Meaney displayed his FF credentials over the weekend by describing the late FF minister, Donogh O’Malley as “my political hero”.

Cllr Meaney, 47, has been elected to represent the Green Party twice on Clare County Council. He also represented the party at Ennis Town Council level while contesting four general elections in Clare for the Greens.

Cllr Meaney said he was resigning from the Greens as he felt the party “to be retrenching back to the urban areas where it is strongest”.

“I spent the last 20 years trying to get a more rural understanding to the Greens and this has failed. I am not prepared to spend another 20 years doing this. As the only rural elected representative in the West of Ireland I have felt very isolated from the Greens over the last number of years.”

In his resignation letter to Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, Cllr Meaney said a number of events had brought things to a head and he found some recent experiences with the party difficult.

The councillor’s decision to seek membership of Fianna Fáil took local observers in Clare by surprise.

He confirmed he hopes to stand as a candidate for Fianna Fáil at the next local elections in Clare.

On his decision to leave the Greens, Cllr Meaney said: “This has not been an easy decision for me and there are a number of risks. There is no guarantee Fianna Fáil members and voters will trust me enough to allow me the opportunity to stand or indeed even vote for me, and people that voted for me in the past may see this move as a betrayal.

“I acknowledge becoming an independent would have been an easier option but sitting as an independent is not something I am comfortable with.

“Joining Fianna Fáil was my decision and my decision alone. I was not asked to join and I have not sought any conditions for joining. My family background is Fianna Fáil, but I have joined as I believe that the policies unique to the Greens 20 years ago are now mainstream policies and FF are the party that is most likely to put these policies in place.”