GREENPEACE Ireland is preparing for the most urgent campaign of its life - the fight for its own survival.
Its bosses from Greenpeace International are understood to have decided over the weekend to proceed with their plans - made public over a fortnight ago - to shut down the Irish office.
The decision is expected to be formally communicated to Greenpeace Ireland this week.
There has been disquiet over the move in some of Greenpeace International's 31 other national offices. Several had lobbied on Greenpeace Ireland's behalf for a reprieve of at least six months.
The parent company says the closure is because its Irish branch failed to meet a target to become, self funding by the end of last year. This target, set three years ago, applies to all Greenpeace International branches in countries which are members of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development.
Greenpeace International relies on contributions from these self funding branches to finance itself and other less wealthy branches.
Greenpeace International, which says it has spent some £250,000 to keep Greenpeace Ireland afloat since 1994, estimates that it would cost £300,000 over the next three years to maintain the kind of operation it considers viable in Ireland.
These figures are vigorously contested by Greenpeace Ireland which also claims it can be self funding over the next three years and predicts its budget will grow by over 40 per cent in the next two years.
The parent organisation has had its own recent financial difficulties and in 1994 cut back its international campaigning staff and halved its campaigning. Greenpeace Ireland, which had already lost two of its nuclear campaigners by 1992, said it was unaffected by this round of cuts.
The Irish branch had secured an agreement in early 1994 to a phased withdrawal of funding until the end of 1996. The last section of this funding was agreed at £33,000 for 1996, according to Greenpeace Ireland, which says its funding shortfall for last year was £28,000.
Greenpeace Ireland members are clearly bitter about the threatened closure. They maintain that the undertaking to be self funding by 1996 was made reluctantly in 1995 at the request of the executive director of Greenpeace International, Mr Thilo Bode.
By mid 1996, the branch was in financial crisis due largely to the failure of fundraising efforts and it was apparent that it would not end the year self sufficient. This crisis was deepened by the absence for three months of executive director, Ms Claire O'Grady Walshe, due to a serious car accident.
The move to shut its Irish branch reflects recent shifts in Greenpeace International's global policy and priorities. The planetary threats on which it will be concentrating over the next five years are global warming and biodiversity. It is expanding its presence in Brazil, Japan and China to concentrate on these issues and wants to subsidise offices there instead of in OECD countries.
When Greenpeace set up its campaigning office in Dublin in April 1987, nuclear energy was Public Enemy No 1 and Ireland was the perfect base for its highprofile, costly campaigns.
Greenpeace Ireland's headline grabbing direct action campaign included sailing to British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield site with members of U2 for a photo opportunity.
While the nuclear threat is still its main plank of protest, the Irish branch has in the past two years targeted water pollution in the rivers Shannon and Liffey and plans to expand to other rivers in the coming years.
The director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr Iain Maclean, said the environmental debate would be "much diminished" by the demise of Greenpeace Ireland. The agent, which issues pollution control licences to industry, is often kept; "on its toes" by the group's constructive criticism, he said.
"In earlier years we got them chaining themselves to railings. That's totally negative criticism - but in recent times Greenpeace seemed to see themselves as far more a part of the solution than purely saying no, there shall be no factories anywhere at any time sort of approach. I was very conscious personally at times of that change in direction."
While Greenpeace Ireland's scientific work is largely respected, some experts say it can be patchy. Some critics have accused the organisation of bordering on the hysterical at times.
The group has stood by a study in Cork harbour in 1994 which was heavily criticised by the county engineer for seriously distorting the pollution loads being discharged. "There are times when they can be over the top, I have no doubt about that," Mr Maclean said. "But sometimes it's necessary to go over the top. They have proved themselves to be a very effective pressure group.
Perversely, Greenpeace Ireland - which, like all Irish environmental groups leads a hand to mouth existence and relies heavily on the work of volunteers and the goodwill of professionals - may have been a victim of its own high profile over the past decade.
The public took its elaborate stunts as an indication of wealth and success. While the organisation has increased its membership by 42 per cent in the past two years, the numbers are still small. In 1994 it had 3,200 members, today it has 4,630.
Greenpeace Ireland's chairman, Father Sean McDonagh, reckons it would need at least 10,000 members to be viable as the kind of organisation it would like to see in its campaigning, lobbying and educational functions.
If Greenpeace International moves to close Greenpeace Ireland, which is a limited company it will have a fight on its hands. Over the past two weeks, the Irish branch has been planning an emergency fundraising strategy.
The executive director of the Chernobyl Children's Project, Ms Adi Roche, says a new beginning for the members of Greenpeace Ireland would allow them to "maintain some of the vision" the parent organisation has lost.
"This is an upheaval which has, caused a lot of trauma for people," said Ms Roche, who has joined Greenpeace actions in the past. "But I think out of the pain will come something new and fresh for the 21st century."