Now the Green party is looking to reset. Eamon Ryan departs his role having done the State, society at large, and the planet, a service. He is not departing because a reset is required. The party, and the cause it serves, will be poorer without him. Not that you would think that if you perused social media or listened to some of those who have appointed themselves spokespeople for something called ‘rural Ireland’.

As far as they’re concerned, Ryan espoused policies and made comments that suggested he had no time for the sections of society that are based beyond medium to large conurbations. Or something like that, because it is entirely unclear to what these people are referring when they claim to speak on behalf of rural Ireland.

They have, however, been effective in propagating a narrative that the Greens, particularly as personified by Ryan, are anti this version of rural Ireland. So it is, that those vying to succeed Ryan have placed great emphasis on a reset that is focused on showering this mythical place with love.

Senator Pippa Hackett, Mayo born and based in Offaly, is a perfectly competent politician. She told Newstalk that if elected leader she would represent a “fresh start”, and that she is not a conventional Green. “I live in rural Ireland, I’m a beef and sheep farmer,” she said.

She went on to note that her “perspective and certainly my different life experiences can make the Green party relevant and relatable”. If elected she would be the first female and non-Dubliner leader. That would be refreshing, but she also sounds like she believes it would give the party a fillip in attempting to relate to rural Ireland.

Her rival for the leadership, Roderic O’Gorman, was in the same neighbourhood. He said on Wednesday that Ms Hackett is a “fantastic colleague” but that it is “simplistic to say if we have someone living in rural Ireland — problem solved”.

All of this is playing into a false narrative. First off, it infers that rural Ireland begins beyond the M50 Dublin ring road. Tell that to the denizens of the cities of Cork or Limerick, Waterford or Galway. Tell it to those who live in big and medium sized towns across the State. What common cause does north Kildare have with south Kerry, or residents of Knocknaheeny have with the people of Knocknagoshel? The reality is that most of the state is urbanised and would be even more concentrated were it not for the proliferation of one-off houses usually within 10km of large towns or cities.

The rural Ireland of which Ryan stands accused of perpetrating depopulation and other various crime is, to the greatest extent, the agriculture sector. This is a sector that is having to endure a disproportionately greater change than the rest of us. The Climate Action Act of 2021 requires that agriculture must reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2030 in order to meet our obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

That has not been easy, but many farmers are making huge efforts to put a shoulder to the wheel. There are some legitimate and proportionate concerns about a lack of state aid in achieving these targets, and the upheavals some are experiencing. There is also a powerful lobby that amplifies these challenges, borne from a long and historic capacity of the farming sector to get its way with the body politic.

Out of this milieu and the challenges associated with climate change, a narrative has grown up. It’s all the Greens’ fault. They are imposing a ‘green agenda’ on rural Ireland. This infers that climate change is a pet project of the Green party.

The reality is unlike others, Ryan and the Greens do not play politics with this matter which science has deemed an existential threat to the planet. They do not, as some have made out, pretend to farmers that they are opposed to measures deemed necessary to attempt to arrest the blight. They do not flip flop on what has been agreed internationally must be done. Nor do they attempt to apportion blame on any other political entity, or blame them up in Dublin, or them over in Brussels, or them goddamn polar bears in the Antartic.

When talking or acting on climate change, Ryan and his colleagues are not focused on how it will play ahead of the next election.

Thus a narrative takes hold. And like all false narratives this one is amplified and distorted further on social media and by the tribunes who have appointed themselves as political guardians of what they claim to be rural Ireland.

Eamon Ryan is not the only minister in recent history to be hoisted on the petard of the self-appointed spokespeople for vested interests. Defenders of rural Ireland. His predecessor as Minister for Transport in the 2016-20 government was Shane Ross. He also was cast as a wrecker of rural Ireland on the basis that he was determined to implement a drink driving regime befitting a developed western state.

At every juncture he was cast as the Bogeyman, coming down from Dublin, telling the poor people of rural Ireland that their ways must change. Most agreed with him, but as always it was the vested interests who shouted loudest. After Ross lost his seat in 2020, TD Michael Collins, now of Independent Ireland, described him as “one of the biggest scumbags” in politics. Collins later withdrew the remark but said he was glad Ross had lost his seat.

Rural Ireland has many parts and is many voices. More often than not those who shout loudest represent only a small vocal minority. So whomever becomes leader should every now and again just patiently counter the false narrative with facts. In that vein, it would be no bad idea to now and again send out somebody like Senator Róisín Garvey, who describes herself as living in the middle of nowhere, to put forward a contra view to the science-sceptic one that currently prevails.

After the way she filleted Michael Healy Rae on RTÉ’s Prime Time last Tuesday, she would be well up to the job.

Agriculture is certainly being asked to shoulder a fair load in tackling climate change, and assistance should be given, strains mitigated. But wrapping it all up as an attack on rural Ireland, and pointing at the Greens is a fraud. It serves nobody but those in search of cheap votes.