Topic:     “Taking Action for the Planet: Life on the High Seas”

Grace O’Sullivan from Tramore, Co. Waterford was a frontline activist with Greenpeace for ten years and spent a further 10 years working with the organization in its headquarters in Amsterdam.

Grace was a crew member onboard the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand when it was bombed by French Secret Service agents in 1985.  Her colleague and friend, photographer Fernando Pereira was killed by the explosions. This act of terrorism did not deter Grace from continuing to campaign for social and environmental justice with Greenpeace, Oceana and more recently joining the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2025.

In 2016 Grace entered the Irish national political arena when she was elected to Seanad Eireann for 3 years and subsequently was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 as a Green Party MEP where she served as a forceful defender of human rights and the environment.

Grace will reflect back on her years as an activist, giving personal insights into the challenges she faced and how she kept a steady focus on the issues that matter. She will describe her early life as an environmental activist when Greenpeace sought to raise public awareness among people across the world of the threats to their environment and the destruction of the natural world itself. 

Grace O’Sullivan will speak at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon on Friday afternoon 24th July at 2.15pm. All are welcome. 

In memory of Fernando Pereira (1950-1985)