Justin Barrett

Justin Barrett (born 13 April 1971) is an Irish far-right politician who has served as the leader of the National Party since 2016. A nationalist, he initially began activism in the 1990s, with the anti-abortion campaign group Youth Defence. He campaigned against the Treaty of Nice in 2002 and founded the National Party in 2016.

Barrett and the National Party campaigned for a No vote in the 2018 abortion referendum through the Abortion Never campaign, which functioned as "an Irish nationalist anti-abortion campaign."

His early activism focused mostly on campaigning in Irish referenda from a Eurosceptic, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, and social conservative perspective. He has not held public office. He contested the 2004 European Election as an independent but has not run for election since then.

Barrett was born in Cork city in 1971 and was adopted when he was five years old by a family in Borrisokane, County Tipperary. Slevin was his adopted parents' name. He identified as Justin Slevin for a period but eventually settled on Barrett, his biological parents' name. Barrett is a graduate in Business Studies from Athlone RTC.

Early activism (1987–1991)

In 1991, he was involved in Young Fine Gael but left because of what he called the cynicism of the party.

Youth Defence (1992–2004)

From 1992 he became actively involved in the Irish anti-abortion movement, becoming the leader of Youth Defence. As a student in Athlone RTC he unsuccessfully contested the election for the Presidency of Union of Students in Ireland. During the 1995 divorce referendum, he was spokesman for the Youth Against Divorce campaign. In later years, he changed his mind on divorce.

In April 1999, Barrett and seven other Youth Defence members were convicted of public order offences for a "mini-riot" outside the Adelaide Hospital that had taken place on 16 May 1998. Despite requests from hospital staff, the son of a dying woman and Gardaí to be quiet, a Youth Defence protest outside the hospital got louder and lead to "pandemonium" when Gardaí intervened. Barrett refused to apologise to the family of the dying woman as he "did not believe they had caused offence."

He was also involved in the campaign against the 2002 abortion referendum. He left Youth Defence in 2004 because he thought their methods of campaigning and interacting with people were becoming increasingly extreme and counterproductive. By 2016, Youth Defence were claiming to have never heard of Justin Barrett, or ever to have had any dealing with him.

No to Nice Campaign

In 2001, a referendum was held in Ireland to approve the Treaty of Nice. However the Treaty of Nice was rejected by 54% of the Irish people in what is known as the Nice I referendum. The following year a second referendum was held on the Treaty of Nice, known as the Nice II referendum. Justin Barrett campaigned against the Nice Treaty in both referenda. Barrett, then 31 years-old, established the No to Nice campaign with Rory O' Hanlon, a retired High Court judge.

During the second Nice campaign, Barrett became the centre of a controversy over his participation in neo-fascist events in Germany and Italy. Barrett initially denied, and subsequently admitted that he had spoken at an event organised by the NPD, a far right, ultranationalist political party. Justin Barrett has always claimed that he spoke at these events in a pro-life capacity on behalf on the Youth Defence Organisation.

2004 European Parliament election

In 2004 Barrett announced his independent candidacy for the European Parliament election of the same year for the East constituency. He set up his headquarters in Drogheda, an area which had experienced a large influx of non-nationals. Gerry McGeough, a former Provisional IRA volunteer and Sinn Féin national executive member, defected to Barrett's campaign. Barrett also supported the Citizenship referendum which was held on the same day as the European Parliament election.

Barrett's campaign focused on immigration, euroscepticism and abortion. Barrett employed nationalist rhetoric during his campaign and stated his intention to "put Ireland first" in the European Parliament. Barrett had previously led the No to Nice campaign during the Nice Treaty referendum in 2002. Barrett campaigned alongside his wife Bernadette and their son Michael.

He achieved 10,997 first preference votes or 2.4% of the total vote in the East constituency and failed to be elected.

Later that year, while attending an immigration debate at University College Dublin's Literary & Historical Society, Barrett was assaulted by attendees allegedly belonging to an Irish anti-fascist group. The debate was chaired by popular RTÉ radio presenter Joe Duffy, and featured Áine Ní Chonaill of Immigration Control Platform.

National Party (2016–present)

In a press release in November 2016, Justin Barrett announced that he was President of the newly founded National Party, a political party that would oppose multi-culturalism and abortion. While Barrett had previously promoted the idea of a "Catholic republic", the National Party states that it is a secular party. The party was due to be publicly launched in a press event on 17 November 2016 at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin. However, after a public backlash, the hotel cancelled the event. Barrett called for a complete ban on Muslims entering Ireland and for the introduction of racial profiling. The party formally registered in early April 2019.

While a Eurosceptic, Barrett does not advocate leaving the European Union ("Irexit"). Quoted in August 2019, Barrett reputedly believes that Ireland could have entered bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom immediately after the Brexit referendum in 2016 and agreed to a separate deal with the British and then to have the EU accept that deal as part of their own negotiations with the British government. He criticised the Irish government and by extension the European Union's handling of Brexit. In September 2019, Barrett was milkshaked in Galway at a National Party protest. In October 2019 he addressed a community meeting in his hometown of Borrisokane on plans to open up a Direct Provision centre for 80 asylum seekers. An edited, audio-only version of his speech was played on the Claire Byrne Live show on RTÉ One.

2018 Irish abortion referendum

Barrett founded Abortion Never as a No campaign in March 2018 to contest the Irish abortion referendum, 2018. Abortion Never presents itself as "an Irish nationalist anti-abortion campaign." At the launch of the campaign, Barrett stated that if the abortion referendum passed, it would lead to euthanasia for the elderly; "It doesn’t just begin with abortion and stop there. It ends in euthanasia, because they already have a plan. You see discussions in the newspapers sometimes, ‘What are we going to do about the pensions crisis?’". At the same event, he called for the abortion referendum campaign to be "as divisive as possible". Ultimately, the referendum was approved by 66.4% of voters, with a 64.1% turnout.

In April 2018, Jim Jefferies featured Barrett on a segment of The Jim Jefferies Show. Jefferies had Barrett travel to London for an interview on abortion (despite already being in Ireland to interview Tara Flynn), "so he could endure the same kind of bullshit every Irish woman has to go through if they want an abortion."

Barrett self-published a book in 1998 in which he set out his political principles and advocated the creation of a "Catholic Republic". Entitled The National Way Forward!, in its text he described immigration as "genocidal", and cited Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and Arthur Penty as having been influential figures in his philosophical development. He also promoted the work of Father Denis Fahey.

Interactions with neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist groups

National Democratic Party of Germany

Barrett spoke at events organised by the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany several times, and was the guest of honour at a NPD rally in Passau, Germany in 2000, in which anti-semitic speeches, peppered with quotes from Adolf Hitler were given, alongside claims that "Germany was the biggest victim of the second World War". Hundreds of skinheads gave standing ovations to elderly Nazis.The NPD confirmed that they have been in contact with Youth Defence for at least 6 years before.

Justin Barrett was an honorary guest at our event in Passau. I invited him. He sat with the delegates. We have been in contact with his group since 1996. We are friendly with his Youth Defence organisation.

— Holger Apfel, then deputy leader of the NPD

He attended two conferences, in October 1999 and 2000, organised by the youth wing of the NDP, the JN, alongside American white nationalist William Luther Pierce. The JN has spoken about how Youth Defence were an important part of their network.

Of particular attraction was the participation of... the leader of the National Alliance from the USA, Dr William Pierce and, last but not least, the leader of a noteworthy Irish anti-abortion group, Justin Barret (sic) from Youth Defense (sic).

— Young National Democrats (JN) report on the 1999 conference

The National Party and Barrett have stated that he addressed meetings all across Europe in his capacity as a pro-life speaker. He has stated that he regrets "not being more careful" regarding his attendance of events held by the NDP in Germany.

A leading far-right politician in Germany has described the anti-abortion group Youth Defence as "an important part of our international network". Youth Defence is the backbone of the No to Nice Campaign, whose chief spokesman is Mr Justin Barrett. ... Mr Sascha Rossmüller, leader of the Young National Democrats (JN), youth wing of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), told The Irish Times: "share many important interests." The German authorities say the JN began to take on neo-nazi characteristics in 1996.

Forza Nuova (Italy)

In June 2001, the website of neo-Fascist group Forza Nuova reported that Justin Barrett had attended a number of their events in Italy (in Milan, and Bologna). He attended and spoke at a Forza Nuova meeting in Milan in November 2002.Barrett shared a platform with Roberto Fiore at a rally of Italian fascists at the Hotel Miramar on 20 and 21 July 2001, in the Italian city of Civitanova. At the rally, Barrett was joined by Mario Di Giovanni, Youth Defence's representative in Italy. A group of Forza Nuova students, led by the then 25-year-old Marco Gladi, visited Ireland in 2001 to "study" with Youth Defence. In an editorial on the Forza Nuova website, the movement calls itself a "friend" of Mr Barrett and praises his efforts to defeat the Nice Treaty.

As part of the dirty war waged by "liberals" against "nationals", the greatest exponent of the nationalist front Justin Barrett, he was attacked in a press campaign of the kind to which we were accustomed us in the past. FN and NPD are, in the mind of the accusers, friends whose Barrett should be ashamed

— Forza Nuova website in October 2002

The National Way Forward

During the 2002 Nice Treaty referendum campaign, some of the ideologies in Barrett's 1998 book The National Way Forward! were queried by those advocating a "yes" vote, and it was noted that the book had "mysteriously disappeared from bookshelves during the campaign". Some commentators suggested that the "Barrett controversy" had shifted focus away from other issues and assisted the "yes" campaign.

In 2004, Justin Barrett had a wife, Bernadette, and children. As of 2016, he was seeking an annulment of this marriage. The breakdown of his relationship has changed his mind on divorce.

Barrett is now married to Rebecca, a primary school teacher from Limerick. She is also involved in the National Party and was a candidate in the 2020 Irish general election for the Limerick City constituency. She received 345 (0.7%) first preference votes and was eliminated on the second count.