‘Rock the boat’: Dublin’s Hazel Chu urges Ireland to stand up to China

Irish Green Party chairwoman Chu felt the force of the far right first hand but still believes in punching above her weight

Despite its small stature Dublin should take on Beijing over its human rights record, she says

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Irish Green Party politician Hazel Chu has just finished her term as the lord mayor of Dublin. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 7:00pm, 8 Aug 2021Updated: 9:19pm, 8 Aug 2021

The mercury is touching 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in leafy Mount Merrion, an abnormally high temperature for this affluent suburb of Dublin, even for July.

Covid-19 restrictions mean indoor dining is still banned in the Irish capital, so beer gardens across the city are teeming with drinkers and diners growing steadily pinker in a heatwave that has forced water restrictions across one of Europe’s wettest countries.

“If the Greens don’t make inroads everywhere now then we never will. Climate change is here, it’s always been here. It’s getting progressively worse,” said Hazel Chu, taking a seat on a bench in a crowded outdoor dining space.

Chu, the chairwoman of the Irish Green Party – a junior partner in the governing Irish coalition – has just finished a one-year stint as lord mayor, in which her political profile soared.

She fell out with senior members of her own party during a failed run for the Senate as an independent candidate, but Chu is not deterred and plans to run again, “if my party supports me”.

Born in Ireland to parents from Hong Kong, Chu was the first mayor of a major European city to be of Chinese descent, and is now arguably Ireland’s highest profile ethnic Chinese figure.