The chief spokesman of the No to Nice Campaign, Mr Justin Barrett, has admitted speaking at a meeting of the far-right Forza Nuova party in Milan but says he did not know it was widely regarded as a neo-fascist organisation.
Responding to reports in yesterday's Irish Times, Mr Barrett also admitted participating in meetings of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD) and its youth wing in Germany but claimed he was not aware they were widely regarded as racist, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi organisations.
Mr Barrett had previously refused to confirm or deny attending the German meetings, one of which he addressed, stating that he was taking legal action against the Sunday Mirror, where it was first reported.
Admitting now that he was there, he added: "I have not the slightest notion, even at this stage, what this political party espouses. We have not and never had links with this organisation."
He had attended about 60 meetings in different foreign countries, to speak against abortion. But he said he would accept no further invitations from the NPD.
He spoke at a Forza Nuova meeting in Milan to "a very quiet bunch of people".
A representative of the centre-right German CDU was also a guest speaker. He believed the meeting was in 1999.
"Isn't this just a load of nonsense, an attempt to smear somebody, with no foundation whatsoever?" He blamed Fianna Fáil, "a party mired in sleaze and corruption". He spoke no Italian or German.
Commenting on the effects of the revelations, he said: "If they succeed in destroying the No campaign because of a smear like this, it will be one of the great tragedies in Irish history, not because of myself, as I could not give two damns about myself." 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.
"Within the ambit of a dirty war conducted by the 'liberals' against the 'nationalists', the main exponent of the 'nationalist' front, Justin Barrett, has been the victim of a press campaign (of vilification) of which we ourselves were victims in the past." Forza Nuova was founded in 1997 by two men with links to neo-fascist movements of 20 years ago.