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Justin Barrett (born 13 April 1971) is an Irish far-right and neo-Nazi political activist. He was leader of the National Party from 2016 until July 2023; from then until 2025 both he and his former deputy, James Reynolds, both claimed sole leadership of the party.
Barrett's activism began 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". Barrett has never held or been elected to any public office. He contested the 2004 European Election as an independent, receiving 2.4% of the vote in the East constituency and failing to be elected. Barrett also contested the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election for the National Party, receiving 183 first-preference votes (0.68%), thus failing to be elected.
His early activism focused mostly on campaigning in Irish referendums from a Euroscepticism, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, and social conservative perspective. He subsequently however moved towards far-right politics and co-founded the National Party. Barrett has attracted controversy for making racist and homophobic remarks. In September 2019, he controversially implied that, if in power, he would strip the Irish citizenship rights of local government politician Hazel Chu, an Irish-born woman of Chinese-descent who has lived in Ireland her entire life.
Described by The Phoenix as a Neo-Nazi, and associated with Neo-Nazi groups since 2002, Barrett has publicly quoted Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, performed Nazi salutes, engaged in Holocaust denial, and in 2023, appeared at an anti-immigration protest wearing a Nazi uniform. In 2024, he praised Hitler as "the greatest leader of all time". Barrett's wife has also described the two as being national socialists.
A statement on the National Party's website in July 2023 stated he had been removed as leader and was replaced by James Reynolds. Barrett has denied being ousted from the National Party. However, his ousting was confirmed by the Electoral Commission in September 2025. As of April 2024, he was the leader of an unregistered political group called Clann Éireann.
In April 1999, Barrett and seven other Youth Defence members were convicted of public order offences for a protest described at the time as 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. Some of the convictions were successfully appealed, two years later, and while Barrett's appeal was disallowed, he was given the benefit of the Probation Act, meaning no criminal conviction was recorded against him.
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.
During the second Nice campaign, Barrett became the centre of a controversy over his participation in Neo-fascism 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 an anti-abortion capacity on behalf on the Youth Defence Organisation.
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 campaigned alongside his wife at the time 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.
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 milkshaking 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 show on RTÉ One.
As leader of the party, Barrett led the National Party to a total of 4,773 votes (0.2%) in the 2020 Irish general election, failing to win any seats.
In mid-July 2023, the National Party reportedly issued a statement saying Barrett had been removed as president of the party. Barrett disputed this and claims to still lead the party. Following his purported removal, he reported two senior members to the Gardaí for allegedly removing €400,000 worth of gold owned by the party from a vault in Dublin 4.
In April 2024, Barrett announced that he had formed a new organisation called 'Clann Éireann' (Irish for 'Family Ireland'). He insisted it was not a political party, and that he had not conceded the leadership of the National Party to Reynolds. He used the organisation to attack the Reynolds-led faction within the National Party, and rallied support for his side in the leadership dispute. An article from the Irish Times in July 2024, said that Clann Éireann is believed to have less than 20 members.
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".
He attended two conferences, in October 1999 and 2000, organised by the youth wing of the NPD, the Junge Nationalisten (JN), alongside American white nationalist William Luther Pierce. The JN has spoken about how Youth Defence were an important part of their network.
The National Party and Barrett have stated that he addressed meetings all across Europe in his capacity as an anti-abortion speaker. He has stated that he regrets "not being more careful" regarding his attendance of events held by the NPD in Germany.
In 2020, Barrett was involved in the organisation of protests against the Minister for Children, Roderic O'Gorman, and attended these protests alongside members of the National Party. O'Gorman had been attacked by members of the Irish far-right on social media after his appointment as Minister for Children, due to tweeting a photo of himself with Peter Tatchell at a Dublin Pride parade in 2018. Tatchell had previously attracted controversy for statements made in 1997 regarding the age of consent laws in Britain. Tatchell later clarified these remarks, saying sex with children was impossible to condone. "This means I condemn it - I oppose adults having sex with children." During a protest, Barrett riled up the crowd against a group of anti-homophobia counter-protestors, causing attendees to rush at the smaller group of counter-protestors and resulting in Garda intervention.
O'Gorman said that he was unaware of the views expressed by Tatchell 20 years previously, stating he "probably would have re-considered taking a photo with him" had he read the 1997 letter before the march. He continued, "I would have seen him primarily as an advocate for LGBT rights in the UK in the 1990s and 2002 but more recently particularly vocal on treatment of LGBT people in Russia and Chechnya." While Barrett alleged that O'Gorman was a "paedophile apologist", O'Gorman has publicly stated his condemnation of paedophilia and stated that the accusations made against him were "rooted in homophobia".
In January 2021, a car being driven by Barrett was seized by Gardaí after it emerged it had not been taxed since November 2019. Barrett was investigated by Gardaí for alleged road traffic offences and breach of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. In October 2021, in an appearance before Longford District Court, he was charged with driving without a licence or insurance, and with failing to produce both documents and an NCT certificate within ten days. Arising from the same incident, which occurred in Clonfin, County Longford, he was also accused of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour contrary to the Public Order Act. He remained silent at the hearing and his solicitor said that he was reserving his position and made a motion for the disclosure of prosecution evidence. The judge granted the order and remanded Barrett on bail until a sitting of Longford District Court on 23 November 2021.
On 9 November 2023, Barrett appeared at an anti-immigration protest outside Leinster House wearing a Nazi SS uniform. When he attempted to give a speech, he was jeered. The Irish Examiner described it as "a not particularly well received speech". He was denounced in a statement published by the National Party for engaging in a "pathetic publicity stunt" described as "an effort to discredit the protest and grab a headline for himself".
Barrett, who was described by The Phoenix as a Neo-Nazi in August 2024, described Hitler as the "greatest leader of all time" in September 2024. He reportedly dressed in "Hitler-style attire" during a demonstration in a Dublin park in September 2025.
Barrett later married Rebecca, a primary school teacher from Limerick, and they have five children . She is also a member of 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.
In November 2020, she responded to a tweet by then-Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu, placing a fake order for Chinese takeaway food with "no bat". The tweet was widely condemned as racist and subsequently removed by Twitter for violating the platform's rules.
Both Justin and Rebecca Barrett have reportedly described themselves as "Irish National Socialists", and posted "pro-Hitler content on .. social media". For example, on 20 April 2025, coinciding with Hitler's birthday, Rebecca Barrett Tweeted an image of birthday cake alongside a mug with Hitler's face on it.
Justin Barrett has previously described himself as a "practicing Catholic" who "takes his cue from the authentic Social Teaching of the Catholic Church".
2023 Dublin riot
On 23 November he shared messages on Telegram that read "1000 people are already at the spire. All hands on deck. Defend our kids" and posted that "I want the storm to break loose!".
Pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi activities
In 2022, Barrett posted a quote from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf on his Telegram page. His open admiration for Hitler led rival far-right leader Hermann Kelly to comment "Justin Barrett is a completely different animal, where the vast majority of people in the National Party had no interest in national socialism or a fetish about Adolf Hitler but Justin did and Justin Barrett was the one who was quoting Mein Kampf, which is very damaging". He has also given , for which he was condemned by James Reynolds.
Personal life
In 2004, Justin Barrett was married to Bernadette Barrett (née Carroll). He said he was incapable of looking after his own children for longer than "four or five hours" without his wife. He divorced his first wife in 2017. Having previously campaigned against the legalisation of divorce, Barrett denied that he was being hypocritical, stating that he had "changed his mind" on divorce. In 2016, he claimed he was "never married" sic, despite having been legally married to Ms Carroll and having four children with her.
Health
Barrett had a heart attack in May 2025. It was his second heart attack.
See also
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