A former member of the National Party has blasted the party and its leader, Justin Barrett. In a podcast uploaded on 10 February, the former member along with the podcast’s host called out the party and other far-right parties for their lack of success in the recent general elections.

But the two men took particular aim at the National Party and Barrett, accusing him and the wider leadership of being “Incompetent”. It was also revealed that the party is run on the principle that Barrett’s word is final in all things.

Incompetence

The men relate that the election hopes of the National Party were doomed to failure from the start. Members of the party had contacted them and told them that they received no financial support from the party for their election campaigns. They described this as “pure incompetence on the part of the leadership”.

Also revealed was that the National Party is organised around the idea of Führerprinzip. This means that Barrett is the ultimate authority in the party, with power delegated as he sees fit. As one of the men related from his time in the party:

There’s essentially never been any vote on any sort of policy or any sort of, what the platform is in the party, whatsoever. The policies — what policies there are — can change from day to day and the policies are handed down from on high

He went on, saying that

It’s an entirely top-down operation. And that’s not necessarily entirely bad. That’s bad. But that’s not necessarily entirely bad if you’re lead by competent people.

It’s believed that the party “is inflexible, it’s inchangeable [sic], and Justin doesn’t really know what he’s doing”. Barrett is also accused of being too busy looking for approval from American activists.

Wider electoral failures

The reelection of Noel Grealish and Verona Murphy is celebrated, saying that getting elected with anti-migrant views “can be done”. But the wider failure of far-right parties in the general election comes in for heavy criticism. The men accuse so-called “Armchair generals” of having “sucked the momentum out of the Irish new right”.

Also coming in for criticism is Gemma O’Doherty, who is accused of being the “Joan of Arc of the Irish right”. It’s declared that

it’s these people who are the problem. See the lunatics need to step the fuck back and go home. They need to put their stall away…. Let the adults take over…. Let the serious people take over and fuck off home.

Public image

It’s admitted that there is “little support” for far-right politics amongst the general public, with the exit polls suggesting as much. But these exit poll results — which showed that only 1% of those asked were concerned about immigration — are “a lie”. Instead, “immigration is a massive, massive concern”.

What the Irish far right needs to do is “come at it from a different angle”. It’s argued that instead of directly criticising asylum seekers and migrants,

You say this immigration is horrific for them and us. If you’re just the nasty guys it’s not going to work for you.

The public image of the wider far right also seems to be of concern to the men. It’s stated that the far right needs to

Make that anti-capitalist argument. Make that anti-corporatist argument. Make that anti-internationalist argument. Make that anti-poverty, anti-immigration, pro-child, pro-family, pro-Irish, pro-young person, pro-rural, argument. Make that argument. Don’t let Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and Claire Byrne get out there and paint you as the fucking Nazi party.

A history of far-right activism

Justin Barrett, the National Party leader, has a history of far-right activism and rhetoric. In his long out of print book, he called for Ireland to be ruled by a Catholic dictatorship. He also claimed that liberals and gay people were responsible for the sexual abuse scandals then rocking the Catholic Church in Ireland.

And in an interview in 2018 he proclaimed that doctors who performed abortions to be executed.

Featured image via YouTube – Screenshot