Welcome to the Green Party's Saoirse McHugh
On Thursday, 28th November, 2019 we welcomed Saoirse McHugh to our school. Saoirse McHugh (born 1990) is an Irish politician and member of the Green Party. She was the Green Party candidate for the Midlands-North West constituency in the 2019 European parliament elections, and will be the Green Party's candidate for Mayo in the next general election.
She spoke to the children about biodiversity loss and on climate change. She emphasised the importance of all living things. She explained that without pollinators there wouldn’t be birds, amphibians, fish and eventually any living things. She spoke about how as a nation we came from an agricultural background and how we are only now returning to the importance of planting and increasing the number of trees as carbon collectors. She herself, grew up on a farm in Achill. She spoke about how farmers are used to paying for seed, for food for animals and fertiliser for crops, for machinery, farm buildings and shelters for animals but joked that we don’t pay pollinators! And keeping pollinators fed is the most important job we can do.
On her journey from Galway to Achill, she spoke about the landscape, the stone fences and the large open green fields. She talked of the single shade of green, beautiful to look at but not a bio-diverse landscape to support pollinators like the bee.
Where are the native flower species, the wildflowers and weeds, the variety of plants in the hedgerows and the trees? She reminisced about the fields, on her farm from her childhood, which were ‘messy’ and colourful, with wildflowers, nettles, thistles, clover and other plants. Biodiverse habitats supported a wide variety of insects, wasps and bees.
Saoirse explained how her ambition to become a politician came from a desire to make a difference. She realised that although she felt shy, she had to make that “uncomfortable step”. She urged our pupils not to leave their futures to people who “move like politicians” but to “stand up and speak honestly, for the right reasons”.
She predicted that things are different now, even in the last five years. “I think change is coming…but that change is hard won, it will take everyone acting together, not leaving it to the people in charge…”
She then asked the children to visualise the future…”Imagine you future, what do you want it to be like?”
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| Saoirse Mc Hugh pictured with our Green School Committee |
She shared her vision. “I want to see farms that keep farmers farming on the land…farmers not having to make a choice between profit and biodiversity. She talked about how, as an islander, she would want to see “small boats fishing on oceans full of fish”. She wants to see communities living with nature. She saw the issue as being three parts; wildlife, farmers and finally community.
Her message to our children was to “keep what you want in your mind and to be honest.”
At the end we had a chance to ask her some questions. Alex asked her “What can we do?”
She urged the children not to feel guilty, don’t be tricked into thinking that their actions could be the most damaging to our environment. She placed huge responsibility on large companies and corporations.
Lauren asked her “Since you live on an island have you seen many changes in the sea?”
Saoirse spoke about the traditional currachs she saw lined up on the shore while huge super tanker, factory ships fished the ocean. They take so many fish on each trip that the fish do not have time to repopulate. She described her home, close to the beach and how after a flood or low tide the beach gets covered in plastic litter. She even recently found a juice carton from China.
Diarmuid asked her if she thought the news about climate change was ‘fake news’ as some politicians thought. She said that that she believed the evidence and the majority of scientific reports which said it is happening. She also said that the risk of it being real is too big not to act. The changes we need to make will make things better so why not do them anyway.
Hugo asked, “When do you think climate change is irreversible?”
She explained that there will be no one day when it is too late, or we should give up and do nothing. We have already experienced irreversible changes in our environment.
Ms. Fenlon asked about the Green party’s idea about rewilding our countryside, mountains and national parks and of the controversial idea of returning wolves to our countryside. Saoirse explained that the importance of rewilding was not about reintroducing one predator but returning as much available land as possible to nature.
She did say that in studies of the result of reintroducing wolves to the wild in Yellowstone Park scientists found that the deer population were reduced and their behaviour changed. Instead of browsing and grazing by the water’s edge they were more furtive and behaved like prey. The grasses and plants on the water’s edge grew back and improved the water quality.
After a cull of wolves in Canada, the caribou herd became diseased, as the wolves naturally culled weak and diseased animals to keep the herd healthier. Mary, in 2nd Class, talked about how she picks up the litter at the end of her visits to Trácht beach. Emily talked about how her granny now cuts the plastic rings off the milk cartons.
Finally Corey asked if you became Taoiseach what would you try to do to make Ireland greener?
Saoirse said she would change Ireland’s role as a tax haven because it supports companies engaging in tax evasion, diverting much needed funds from important funding for infrastructure, education and health in poorer countries where they might locate.
We invited her to return to us on May 8th for our special closing event and wished her well with her work and advocacy for change in policies affecting climate.
