Mal O’Hara: Gay councillor is named as new leader of Green Party NI – Belfast Telegraph
A Belfast councillor has become the first openly gay leader of a mainstream party in Northern Ireland.
al O’Hara has been named new leader of the NI Green Party.
The 43-year-old replaces Clare Bailey following a disappointing election in May which saw the party lose both of its MLAs.
Mr O’Hara said he is determined to grow his party and recapture its Stormont seats. He also wants to see the region become self-sufficient in energy and to change “hearts and minds” on environmental issues.
Previously the party’s deputy leader, Mr O’Hara was elected unopposed as leader after Ms Bailey decided not to continue in the role in the wake of the Stormont election in which she lost her south Belfast seat.
He said: “We do an internal process within the party and our rules state that we have an election for a leader after each Assembly election and Clare indicated that she wasn’t going to put her name in the hat.
“As deputy for the last three years, I was the next person and we agreed and felt that it was time for new leadership and new energy in the party.
“Members were very supportive and keen to see me take on the mantle of leadership when Clare indicated she was stepping down.
“Clare will still remain involved with the party, we will be utilising her expertise and knowledge in different ways within the party.
“But I think she has decided after the disappointing Assembly election it is time for new leadership, a fresh approach and to bring forward the next generation of activists.”
Mr O’Hara described the Assembly election result, in which party member Rachel Woods also lost her seat in North Down, as the “swings and roundabouts” of politics and said his party had been squeezed by major issues.
He said the party is “very proud” of the legacy of its MLAs.
“We brought two pieces of law, but also we forced the Executive to bring forward a Climate Bill,” he said. “We have always been the progressive vanguard of change.
“We have talked about the environment for decades and it’s good to see that others are beginning to adopt those policies and move in that direction.
“But we are a post-conflict society. We are still locked in that binary understanding of constitutional politics and the recent election we had was focused around those issues and that had an impact on us.
“But when there is another Assembly election, and who knows, there might be one pretty quickly, we are determined to regain those seats and we will fight hard and focus hard and I think the public will want Green representation in Northern Ireland.
“We are moving into an era of three different tribes, broadly nationalist, broadly unionist and those others in the middle.
“I think as that matures as a democracy we will see Green politics resurgent.
“I am determined that the scheduled election for councils next year, that we will bounce back stronger than ever.”
Mr O’Hara also said that part of his job would be “winning hearts and minds” to environmental issues.
He added: “We need to say to people this will have a beneficial impact in your life, this will reduce inequality, this will provide hope and opportunity.
“The example of that is, we are a rainy windswept island. Why are we not energy self-sufficient? We should have been decades ago if people had listened to Greens and others in the environmental movement.”