An Interview with Senator Grace O’Sullivan
Robert O’Sullivan
A lifetime activist, Grace O’Sullivan isn’t the most conventional politician in the Oireachtas. From scaling nuclear warships and surviving bombings with Greenpeace, to local conservation efforts in Tramore, the Green Party Senator represents the spirit every politician & activist should strive for. I spoke to Grace just after her recent talk in UCC.
GreenZine: What was life like growing up in the seaside town of Tramore?
Senator Grace O’Sullivan: I had the luck and pleasure of growing up in the seaside town of Tramore. I was one of eight children, and was the first girl born after four boys. As a result I was very much influenced by the activities of my brothers, which included swimming in the sea, fishing, rock climbing and all kinds of outdoor activities. I played lots of sports and was on the school hockey team and basketball team. I was an active member of Tramore sea and cliff rescue at the age of 16 years, learning the skills of first aid and CPR. I was employed by Waterford County Council every summer for five years as a Lifeguard on Tramore Beach. Here I learnt surf rescue which brought me into one of my lifelong passions — surfing. I became Ireland’s first female surf champion in 1981!
GZ: How did you first get your start in activism?
Grace: I have been an activist in my community through my work with the Sea Rescue and the RNLI, where I was a coxswain in the small inshore lifeboats. Further, I started to become politically aware becoming involved in Amnesty candle vigils, voicing opposition to human rights violations in my late teens.
GZ: What was it that drew you towards working with Greenpeace?
Grace: I saw the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Scheveningen, Holland whilst on a visit there in the late 1970’s. I contacted the organisation, which had an office in London, to say I would be interested to volunteer to work with them. Lo and behold I got a phone call some years later, out of the blue, inviting me to join their ship Sirius in the port of Amsterdam a few days later. I joined the ship on the 7th March, 1983.
GZ: How did you find adjusting to life on the seas?
Grace: I was quite out of my depth initially when I joined my first Greenpeace ship. I found myself as a deckhand, working alongside a crew of multiple nationalities, religions and cultures different to those I had experienced growing up in Ireland. This was both a challenge and a joy, as I met some of the best people I was ever to encounter in my life’s journey. I was willing to work hard and use my skills as a lifeboat driver to a great advantage. I was lucky to have good sea-legs, so didn’t have go to the bunk in high seas. Instead I loved the big sea swells and storms, so could function very well in tough times.
GZ: Greenpeace brought you to places as far away as New Zealand, Panama and even the Antarctic — how did you find all of this as a young person from Ireland?
Grace: Sailing with Greenpeace was a huge eye-opener and education for me. The organisation had offices across the world. The campaigns were well planned, managed and executed. The focus of the organisation was, and is today, to campaign to draw awareness to environmental abuse and to work to promote global peace.
I spent ten years at sea on many many Greenpeace ships and campaigns.
GZ: You were aboard the Rainbow Warrior, one of Greenpeace’s most famous vessels, when it was bombed by the French government. Could you tell us about that event?
Grace: The campaign and ship best known was the Nuclear campaign of 1984/85 onboard the Rainbow Warrior. I joined the ship in Jacksonville, Florida in October 1984. We the crew worked, under the instruction of Captain Peter Willcox and naval architects, to convert the boat from a trawler to a sailing vessel. We departed Jacksonville in early March 1985. We sailed through the Panama Canal, into the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, where Greenpeace had an office. We spent the next four months sailing through the Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, Vanuatu and onto Auckland, New Zealand, campaigning to promote the Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty amongst the Pacific Island Nations. We were welcomed into Auckland where we had a Greenpeace office. Our plan was to provision in Auckland before setting sail to Mururoa Atoll, in the French Polynesian Islands. Unfortunately our plans were thwarted when our ship was bombed in the harbour of Auckland. Our friend and crew member Fernando Pereira was a victim of the bombing — a sadness I carry through my life. It transpired that the French Government had instructed their Secret Service Agents to bomb our ship in order to stop our activities.
GZ: What was life like for you after Greenpeace?
Grace: I worked with Greenpeace both onboard the ships and in the HQ in Amsterdam for 20 years. My last job with Greenpeace was Human Resources Manager for Greenpeace International. I returned to Ireland in 2000. I undertook the Field Ecology distance learning diploma course at UCC under the guardianship of Dr Fidelma Butler and Dr John O’Halloran. I absolutely loved this course. It led to me working with the Heritage Council of Ireland as a educational specialist. I also worked with Oceanic Surf School and Marine Education Centre and TBay Surf and Eco Centre doing Eco walks and habitat exploration. I continued to volunteer teaching surfing to youngsters growing up in and around Tramore. I continued to study, going on to complete a post graduate diploma in Business Enterprise Development at Waterford Institute of Technology.
GZ: How did you get involved in the Green Party, and Irish politics itself?
Grace: I was called by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan requesting that I stand for the party in the EU Elections 2014. Following some serious convincing I took the challenge, and am delighted to now be the Green Party Senator in the current Oireachtas. I am a member of a group of five other senators in the Seanad. Our group is called the Civil Engagement Group and I am truly inspired and encouraged by my group. Further, we each have an assistant and, believe me, without the meticulous work of our assistants would achieve little. I have the benefit of being part of a really interesting party — the Green Party, with 13 elected Councillors and two TD. Politics is fascinating and I am learning the trade and the intrigues day by day.
GZ: You were elected to the Seanad on the Agricultural Panel in 2016. What work in the Seanad have you been particularly proud of?
Grace: To date, I am very proud to have pushed the issue of plastics to the fore of our political work. Further, I have worked extremely hard on the Heritage Bill, and supported my colleagues on the Domestic Violence Bill and Adult Safeguarding Bill.
GZ: How does your work in the Seanad differ from your work with Greenpeace?
Grace: Working as a politician is quite different to be working on the ‘frontline’ with Greenpeace, but the guiding objectives are the same — to work towards a more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way of life for world citizens and all that inhabit our world and to try as best as we can to live in peace. I know this sounds aspirational, but it’s the only way towards survival.
GZ: What advice would you give to young people today?
Grace: My advice to young people is — you have one chance at life so try to make it as interesting and good as possible. And remember, every time you do a good deed it will not only help those you do it for, but you to will get a big benefit and reward for being good and kind.
