Catherine Martin (born 30 September 1972) is an Irish

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

politician who served as

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport () is a senior minister in the Government of Ireland The Government of Ireland () is the executive (government), executive authority of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, headed by the , the h ...

from June 2020 to January 2025 and was deputy leader of the Green Party from June 2011 to July 2024. She served as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...

(TD) for the Dublin Rathdown constituency from 2016 to 2024. She lost her seat at the

2024 general election This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2024 United Nations Security Council election * 2024 national electoral calendar * 2024 local electo ...

Personal life

Martin was born in 1972 and is a native of

Carrickmacross Carrickmacross () is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The population was 5,745 at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, making it the second-largest town in the county. Carrickmacross is a market town which developed around a castle buil ...

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

. She studied at

Maynooth University Maynooth University (MU) (), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Maynooth University was formerly known as National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ). It was Ireland ...

. She was a teacher of English and Music, and the head of the Green Schools Committee at St. Tiernan's Community School in Dundrum for 15 years prior to being elected to the Dáil. She is married to Francis Noel Duffy, also a former Green Party TD and they have three children. Catherine and Francis first met in 1999 during a local election in their native Carrickmacross in County Monaghan, where Catherine's brother Vincent P. Martin and Francis' father were both campaigning for office. Vincent is also a member of the Green Party. In June 2020, Vincent became a senator on the Green Party entering government.

Political career

Green Party

She joined the Green Party in 2007. In 2009, her brother, Vincent, began a hiatus from politics and as a result Catherine was co-opted to Vincent's seat on the

Monaghan County Council Monaghan County Council () is the local authority of County Monaghan, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning ...

. Catherine in turn vacated the seat on the death of the Martins' mother and co-opted it to local green party member Darcy Lonergan. She was elected as deputy leader of the Green Party in 2011 simultaneous to

Eamon Ryan Eamon Michael Ryan (born 28 July 1963) is an Irish former Green Party politician who served as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport from June 2020 to January 2025, and was Leader of the Green Par ...

becoming leader. In 2014, she was elected to

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council () is the local authority of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that succeeded the former Dublin County Council on its abolition on 1 January 1994 a ...

, and was elected to the Dáil following the 2016 general election, after receiving 4,122 first preference votes. She was the Green Party's Education spokesperson. Martin was elected the first chair of The Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus in November 2017, an organisation she spearheaded the creation of. In May 2020, following nominations from several councillors, she said that she would give 'serious consideration' into running for leadership of the Green Party in the 2020 Green Party leadership election. On 6 June, it was confirmed she would contest the leadership. Martin received 200 nominations for the contest, four times as many as was needed. Within the Green Party, Martin's candidacy is seen to represent the views of younger, more radical Green Party members who did not wish for the party to enter into coalition with

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

, in contrast to the leadership of Eamon Ryan which is seen to represent the moderate "old guard" who are open to working with those parties. Despite this, Martin was the lead negotiator for the Green Party in the government formation talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and after a deal was reached, Martin endorsed the deal and argued in favour of it. It was noted at the time Martin's husband Francis Noel Duffy abstained from the vote on the deal, and later spoke out against the deal. Martin suggested that this was "part of a healthy debate" within the Green Party over the merits of the deal. In July 2020, Ryan retained the leadership of the Green Party by narrowly defeating Martin by 994 votes (51.24%) to 946 (48.76%), a winning margin of 48 votes (2.47%), in a postal ballot of party members (turnout was 66.7% of the 2,923 ballots sent out, and there were 10 spoiled votes (0.5%) among the 1,950 ballots returned).

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media

On entering government, Martin was appointed as

, succeeding both

Josepha Madigan Josepha Madigan (born 21 May 1970) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion from July 2020 to March 2024. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Rathdown constituen ...

and

Shane Ross Shane Peter Nathaniel Ross (born 11 July 1949) is an Irish former Independent politician who served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport from May 2016 to June 2020. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Rathdown constituency from 2 ...

in different aspects of her portfolio. On 17 December 2022, she was re-appointed to the same positions following Leo Varadkar's appointment as Taoiseach. On 22 June 2023, RTÉ admitted that it paid its top presenter

Ryan Tubridy Ryan Tubridy (born 28 May 1973) is an Irish broadcaster. He currently presents the weekday mid-morning programme ''The Ryan Tubridy Show'' on Virgin Radio UK, as well as a weekend programme on Sundays. His broadcasting career with RTÉ spanned ...

€345,000 more than publicly declared between 2017 and 2022. Martin said it was unacceptable that the expected standards of transparency and accountability had not been met. Two days later, Martin met with chair of the

RTÉ Board The RTÉ Board is a body of up to twelve people which makes policy and guiding corporate direction for RTÉ, Ireland's state public broadcaster. The board membership includes the broadcaster's chief officer and one elected staff representative. ...

Siún Ní Raghallaigh and ordered a full review of the governance and culture at RTÉ and said its executive board was not told of the hidden payments that caused an "existential" crisis for the national broadcaster. Martin lost her seat in the

2024 Irish general election The 2024 Irish general election to elect the 34th Dáil took place on Friday, 29 November 2024, following the dissolution of parliament, dissolution of the 33rd Dáil on 8 November by president of Ireland, President Michael D. Higgins at the re ...

References

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