Mary White (Green Party politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named Mary White, see Mary White (disambiguation).

Mary White (born 24 November 1948) is an Irish Green Party politician. She is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency. She was elected to the Dáil in the 2007 general election She is the first female TD elected for the Green party and the first woman elected in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency.

She is the Deputy leader of the Green Party and was previously an elected member of Carlow County Council for the Borris electoral area from 1999-2007. She is the Party's current spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Arts and Tourism, Community and Rural Affairs and Women’s Affairs.

White was born in Wicklow and has lived in Borris, Carlow for since 1987.. She was edecated at the Ursuline Convent, Waterford and attended Trinity College, Dublin where she was a founder member of the English Society and also received a Pink for sporting excellence.

She failed to be elected in the 1997 general election. She was elected to Carlow County Council in the local elections in June 1999, topping the poll in Borris, and was re-elected at the 2004 local elections.She was the Green Party candidate at the 2002 general election in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency, receiving 8% of the poll. Mary also ran for the Seanad Éireann that same year but only received 35 votes.

In 2004 White was the Green Party candidate in the European Parliament election for the Eastern constituency, replacing outgoing Green MEP Nuala Ahern. She secured 5.6% of the first preference vote but did not take a seat.

Mary White has co-edited a book on walking in the "Blackstairs" with Joss Lynam and authored another, "Environment, Mining and Politics". She is also a keen hill-walker, linguist and organic grower. She is married to Robert White and has one daughter.