Email calling on members to 'unite behind' Eamon Ryan as leadership challenge begins
The Green Party has been criticised after an email was sent to all members urging them to unite behind the leader Eamon Ryan just as nominations are expected to open for a leadership challenge.
The email, which urged members to unite in support of the party's negotiating team and the leader, was sent on Tuesday, the same day news broke that
Read More:
The unsigned email from a party HQ email address, sent late on Tuesday evening spoke at length about the government formation talks, informing members that they would remain confidential and "we are trying to achieve a transformative and radical programme for government, because we know that you will accept nothing less".
The final paragraph of the email body stated: "We need your support now more than ever. And we need You all to unite behind the Parliamentary Party, our Leader, Eamon and our negotiating team as we try to extract as much as we can from this process and bring it to you for consideration."
Members were emailed on Wednesday afternoon and told that nominations for the leadership contest are now officially open and will close on June 7.
One longtime Green member said they do not recall ever being called on to unite behind the leader, and "the general read of the situation" was that it was strange, due to Mr Ryan not being a member of the day-to-day negotiating team, and a prominent leadership challenge about to kick off.
"People read it as a bit of a bizarre statement, and read it as prepping the ground for Eamon," a source said."People were specifically not happy that it was essentially anonymous, they're usually signed off by Hazel Chu (Chairperson) or Maura Rose McMahon (General Secretary)."
The Green Party constitution mandates that a leadership election must happen within six months of a general election. The election takes place by postal vote of all Green Party members.
It's understood Mr Ryan made the call to bring the leadership election forward, which wasn’t supposed to kick off until June or July.
Meanwhile, The Rural Young Greens grouping within the party have also written to Catherine Martin
Read More:
