The Green Party’s Hazel Chu is set to be Dublin’s next Lord Mayor

The election for the position is set to be held next Monday, where the Green Party member is likely to be voted in. 

Hazel Chu, a Green Party councillor who topped her ward in the local elections in 2019, is set to be the next Lord Mayor of Dublin. A vote is to be taken next Monday, where Chu is expected to be elected, replacing Fianna Fáil’s Tom Brabazon.

Under the Dublin Agreement drawn up with Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Social Democrats, it’s the Green Party’s turn to take over the position of Lord Mayor.

When she was elected, Chu won the highest percentage vote a first time candidate has ever recorded in a local election, with 33.1 per cent of first preference votes. She was also the first Irish-born person of Chinese descent to be elected.

On Twitter, Chu was keen to point out that her election was not a done deal, and that “it’s all my council colleagues votes I would like next Monday 29th and I will be asking for them in the coming days”.

She has been a member of the Green Party since 2016, and has many times stood up for both women and marginalised groups. Along with Catherine Martin and Grace O’Sullivan she founded the party’s group for women: ‘Mná Glasa’ and became its co-chair.

In 2018, she told IMAGE: “My immediate local aim is for a more vibrant, inclusive and active community. I want to see inclusivity across the board, no matter on gender or race. There are 4.7 million people in Ireland. Of the population, approximately 50 per cent are female.

“Twenty-two per cent of the Dail is women. Thirty per cent of the Seanad are women. Twenty-one per cent of the Council is women. That’s simply not good enough. We need more women for a better share of voice.”

She has been the subject of much racist abuse online, which she unfailingly responds to with calm and reason, always taking the high road.

Dear fascists, thank you for bumping me up a few hundred followers, a good 1/4 of a million tweet engagements & lots of support by good people wanting to make sure fascism doesn't win in our country.

I am Irish. Ireland is my home as much as it is yours. Learn to share it.

xx

— Hazel Chu (@hazechu) August 8, 2019

The position of Lord Mayor of Dublin has a number of responsibilities, including acting as an ambassador for the city, both locally and internationally. The Lord Mayor takes the lead at City Council meetings, and signs its records of proceedings.

During their term, the Lord Mayor also lives and works in the official residence on Dawson Street, the Mansion House, so Chu, her husband, TD Patrick Costello and their daughter, could be moving house soon.

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