Justin Barrett
WHEN THE Registrar of Elections’s Art O’Leary announced in Iris Oifigiúil that he was denying separate applications from both Justin Barrett and James Reynolds to amend the registration details of the National Party (NP) it was clear that the dispute between rival factions for control of the NP is far from over.
Following the party’s rupture last July, despite the sensational headlines about €400,000 of gold bars, Barrett largely kept his own counsel, while the faction led by Reynolds, who had control of the NP’s social media accounts and website, attempted to show that they were carrying on as usual.
In April Barrett launched Clann Éireann (CÉ), just days after the findings of the Electoral Commission (EC) had been made public. At the launch of this new movement, Barrett asserted that a four-page letter from the commission made it clear that he was still the leader of the NP but that his decision to expel James Reynolds from the party directorate by posting on social media was not admissible as he was not following proper procedures.
With his leadership of the NP now accepted by the EC, Barrett is determined to carry out the expulsion in a manner that will satisfy the commission.
During the CÉ launch, Barrett said he expected that Reynolds, “because he is an idiot, he is almost certain to be stupid enough to challenge this in a court of law”. Barrett was scathing of Reynolds’s chances and claimed that he had also advised him against taking an earlier case.
In 2017 Reynolds sought an ex-parte injunction preventing his removal from his positions on the Longford executive and as national treasurer of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).
James Reynolds claimed in the past that he “was put through the trauma of a litigation as a result of my involvement with the National Party” and that when the judge ruled against his application and awarded full costs in favour of the ICSA, the bill for his day in court was €40,000. Reynolds also claimed that, to add salt to his wounds, Barrett rang him while he was still in the High Court and told him that he had been an idiot to take the case.
Barrett’s speech at the launch of CÉ made it clear too that the quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf that Barrett posted on his Telegram Channel in November 2022 was no aberration. His speech was extreme from the start, engaging in holocaust denial, arguing against democracy and espousing the Leader Principle.
Although careful not to use the word Jew because, as he claimed, he was trying to get past the YouTube algorithm, he was clearly antisemitic as he talked about the “one type of people” associated with International Finance Capital and also told the story of the “king who knew not Joseph” from Exodus 1.8 in the Bible. When an Irish Independent podcast failed to mention the antisemitism, Barrett posted on Telegram: “Very disappointed with the lack of reference to the fairly open anti-semitism, to be honest…”
Days later Barrett followed up with a post on Telegram arguing that the anti-immigration movement needed Nazi brownshirts to deal with the Garda public order unit.
