Ryan Óg

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Readers will, we’re sure, sympathise with Patrick Quinlan on his resignation from the leadership of the National Party, alleging undemocratic goings-on in the party’s ‘ard-chomhairle’. Undemocratic behaviour in a fascist party! Who’d have thought?

Apparently they voted him, their party leader, off their national committee for asking questions they found awkward and for making criticisms of some things they were doing and about things he thought they should do, which they weren’t.

Quinlan is the party’s only elected public representative, elected to Fingal County Council in 2024.¹ Rather than targeting property speculators his election leaflet perpetuated the lie of ‘mass immigration’, that this was ‘fuelling inflation’ and ‘depriving our nation of affordable homes’.

No mention of big landlords. Or bankers. Though his voting record shows opposition to one rent rise plan he did vote in favour of ‘moderate rent increases’ and a time when the purchasing power of incomes is falling. Quinlan is clearly not a supporter of a program of universal rented housing,

But Quinlan, like his party, knows what’s important and will solve most of our problems, apparently and so he has participated in anti-migrant demonstrations and spoke at the pan-racist event in Dublin in April last year perversely linking their trajectory to that of the 1916 Rising.²

FOUNDING OF THE PARTY AND INTERNAL WORKINGS

Quinlan’s letter of resignation and the national committee’s response reveal interesting facets of the party’s internal workings: meetings are online, no minutes of meetings are kept but voting results noted on WhatsApp; the list of members (such as they may be) secret even from their leader.

The fascists who founded the NP did so in 2016, while other people were either preventing the fascist Pegida’s launch in Dublin,³ commemorating the centenary of the 1916 Rising or questioning why it and the subsequent War of Independence had failed to bring about the intended Republic.

Any notion that the racists and fascists might’ve shared those concerns can quickly be put to rest by examining the 1916 Proclamation of Independence, in particular the lines that “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty and equal opportunities for all.”⁴

The NP has had more than its share of splits and internal struggles, from the missing gold bars to the reported value of €400,000 (£344,000) stolen from the party’s vault⁵ (!) in July 2023 by ‘rivals’ in the NP, to Nazi⁶ Justin Barrett’s dismissal as leader (denied by Barrett) two weeks later.

Despite Barrett’s denials, he was replaced by James Reynolds, a party co-founder with Barrett who apparently made homophobic remarks at the party’s founding conference, defended by Barrett who confirmed the party’s bias to a putative supporter who then walked out of the conference.

However, two years later Reynolds was replaced by Patrick Quinlan.

Homophobia is a frequently visible and audible aspect of fascists and the far-Right generally and in July 2020 the party organised a rally against the appointment of Roderic O’Gorman, an openly gay man, as Irish Minister for Children, pushing the line that gay men are paedophiles.⁷

EARLY CAMPAIGNING AND OPPOSITION

The NP supported and spoke at a number of protests against requirements to wear face masks during the Covid epidemic, at one of which they also organised an attack by supporters armed with clubs upon unarmed counter-protesters, in which they were assisted by the Garda POU.⁸

A few months later, a number of NP supporters confronted and jostled an LBGT activist, one of them clubbing her on the head with a wooden batten wrapped in a flag. Despite Gardaí claiming that nothing happened, many recordings on video camera forced an admission.

NP member Michael Quinn pleaded guilty in court and in October 2021 was sentenced to three years prison, the final year suspended.⁹

The main activity along with most of the far-Right in Ireland has been in opposing immigration to Ireland and in particular opposing Muslims. Immigrants are alleged to get preferential access to resources over Irish people – in particular housing — and of living off state social benefits.

The far-Right also accuse immigrants of attacking women and preying on children. Proving these to be lies through use of statistics does not work since the far-Right are only interested in quoting statistics that seem to prove their theories.

Antifascists have targeted the party’s events a number of times, notably in a charge against their rally outside Leinster House on 10^th October 2020, when Barrett told the Gardaí that the NP was on their side¹⁰ and begged for a safe escort away from the area (which the Gardaí supplied).

The party’s annual conference in November 2022 in the expensive conference centre in Lough Erne Resort, County Fermanagh (inside the British-occupied colony) was attacked by antifascists resulting in a number of NP requiring hospital treatment.

While the fascist movement in Ireland remains tiny and riven by splits, often as a result of career ambition and always due to competing egos, they remain a danger to vulnerable groups and to the democratic forces of resistance, particularly with State support, as currently in the Six Counties.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1The only one elected out of nine NP candidates in various areas.

2See reference later to the text of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence.

3See https://rebelbreeze.com/2016/02/08/pegida-planned-launch-ends-in-sinking-survivors-take-to-lifeboats/

44^th paragraph of the text.

5https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/02/ireland-far-right-national-party-crisis-stolen-gold-claims

6Any doubts about the full accuracy of the appellation of ‘Nazi’ to Barrett can quickly be dispelled by reference to some of his utterances and to his dress sense on occasion.

7Fascists and other far-Right activists frequently throw that slur, not only at LBGT people but also in general at antifascists and anti-racists.

8Public Order Unit (what used to be called the ‘Riot Squad’). See also https://the-beacon.ie/2020/10/10/clashes-at-far-right-rally-as-national-party-leader-tells-gardai-you-are-of-us-and-we-are-of-you/ though clearly not a report of someone who was actually there. Witnesses will spot the inaccuracy of “Both groups could be seen attempting to push back the barriers separating them” which is what might have appeared from brief video clips; in fact the NP were pushing the barriers to block the antifascists while the latter were trying to remove or overcome the barriers to close with the NP supporters.

9https://the-beacon.ie/2021/10/19/national-party-member-gets-prison-for-attack-on-lgbtqia-activist-izzy-kamikaze/

10https://the-beacon.ie/2020/10/10/clashes-at-far-right-rally-as-national-party-leader-tells-gardai-you-are-of-us-and-we-are-of-you/

SOURCES & ADDITIONAL READING

Not wishing to give right-wing media as source but has been confirmed by others including https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EQayHNHB5/?

At the time of writing, Wikipedia had not yet caught up with the leadership change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Party_(Ireland,_2016)