The mystery of the far-right National Party’s €400,000 gold: where could it have come from?

Even among Ireland’s far-right organisations, the National Party occupies a uniquely extreme position.

Party leader Justin Barrett has suggested Irish people born to foreign parents should be stripped of their citizenship, has quoted Adolf Hitler and, in a previous political life, appeared as a speaker at neo-Nazi rallies.

This explains, at least in part, why the party remains firmly on the fringes of Irish politics, never coming close to returning a candidate at any level, despite repeated attempts. It also makes this week’s bizarre revelation that the party possesses about €400,000 in the form of gold bullion all the more confusing.

News of the party’s massive gold reserves came from an unusual source: Barrett himself. In a post using one of the National Party’s social media accounts, Barrett claimed “a considerable quantity of gold” had been stolen from the party’s safe in Dublin. In typically jingoistic language, he called the alleged theft a betrayal of both the party and the country.

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“We will emerge from this fire and trial. Heat makes iron into steel,” the Tipperary man said.

Registered political parties are obliged to provide the State watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), with annual accounts. The National Party has not provided any accounts in its seven years of existence

Gardaí have confirmed they are examining the matter but declined to describe their inquiries as a criminal investigation. They said the gold was allegedly taken from a premises in Dublin 4 and is currently in a “secure location” while its ownership is being determined.

According to Barrett’s statement, the reserves were “dearly gathered by the sacrifice of party members and supporters over many years”. But official documents filed by the party since its foundation in 2016 provide little insight into the origin of the gold.

Registered political parties are obliged to provide the State watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), with annual accounts. The National Party has not provided any accounts in its seven years of existence. However, the regulatory body indicated that there are no penalties for a failure to send annual accounts. “The current legislation does not provide for sanctions or penalties for noncompliance with the obligations regarding statement of accounts,” it said.

[ Michael McDowell: How did Justin Barrett’s tiny National Party amass €400,000 in gold? ]

Irish-American community

The party has registered €10,000 in donations received in 2019 and 2020. Half of this was donated by Barrett and the party’s deputy leader James Reynolds. The other half was donated by a private individual named Patrick Clancy.

It costs €20 a year for membership of the National Party. It has never disclosed how many members it has but supporters have previously claimed between 1,000 and 2,000 members. However, major meetings of the party seldom attract more than 150 attendees.

In the last year, the party has been attempting to attract members among the Irish-American community in the United States. These efforts have been led by a young man based in Massachusetts called Eoin Murphy, who uses the name Eoin Ó Murchú for party activities.

In an effort to raise the National Party’s US profile, Murphy and his small group of followers have been hosting publicity drives and commemoration events for Irish-American history.

He has also been trying to recruit US members online.

“If you have any interest in joining get in touch, join and help revive the Gaelic spirit of Irish America,” he recently told an online group. It appears Murphy has managed to recruit at least one high-profile figure on the US far-right, a Florida resident with Irish citizenship named Jim O’Brien.

O’Brien, who uses the alias Padraig Martin online, came to prominence following his arrest at the notorious Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

“If you are concerned with advancing Irish nationalist causes – pushing back against the deleterious impact of a migrant invasion on Ireland – please consider joining and/or supporting… The National Party (of Ireland),” O’Brien posted on the far-right social media platform Gab earlier this year. “Membership is only €20 a year and it goes a long way.”

Sipo rules

According to Sipo rules, foreign political donations to a registered party are not permitted. A Sipo spokesperson said membership dues are considered to be donations and that non-Irish citizens living outside Ireland cannot make donations “of any value”.

However, it is not at all clear that the party’s US activities are any more successful than those in Ireland. Even if the party has managed to recruit a couple of hundred new members from America, it would not come close to explaining the gold reserves.

Barrett suggested the gold was worth considerably less than €400,000 when it was first acquired. He also said that just because the Garda are not currently conducting a criminal investigation ‘does not mean there won’t be one’

There is also no evidence that the party has received funding from prominent US right-wing groups.

In 2017, Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US president Donald Trump, announced plans to fund right-wing, anti-EU groups in Europe. However, sources previously close to the National Party said the group was considered too obscure to warrant funding from Bannon. Others said the gold reserves may predate the founding of the National Party and were donated for the purpose of promoting anti-abortion causes.

In a Telegram post on Wednesday, Barrett suggested the gold was worth considerably less than €400,000 when it was first acquired. He also said that just because the Garda are not currently conducting a criminal investigation “does not mean there won’t be one”.

Asked by The Irish Times about the source of the gold and the party’s activities in the US, a social media account from which Barrett issued his statement earlier in the week about the alleged theft sent a texted response that contained three laughing crying emojis. Queries to the party’s main address, which is no longer controlled by Barrett, went unanswered.

A Garda source with knowledge of the gold dispute said the first job was to determine who owns the gold. This will likely reveal if it was obtained legitimately, the source said. “If it wasn’t, we’ll go from there. We’re taking it step by step.”

Another garda said the matter appears to be an internal party dispute and the civil courts may end up being asked to rule on the gold’s ownership.

Internal frustration

That dispute is believed to relate to internal frustration with Barrett’s leadership decisions and the party’s failure to make inroads in the polls despite growing resistance to the Government’s immigration policies.

Some members were also annoyed by Barrett’s stance on restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Barrett refused to attend demonstrations against lockdowns and had voiced support for Government restrictions

Barrett’s decision to run in the Dublin Bay South byelection, in which he received 0.7 per cent of first-preference votes, was seen as an embarrassment for the party and a waste of funds, sources previously close to the party said.

[ Leprechaun economics – Frank McNally on a famous fictional precedent for the National Party’s gold ]

His posting of a quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf last November also raised questions about his judgment, as did his decision to expel Philip Dwyer, one of the party’s more high-profile figures. Dwyer has now teamed up with Cork anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe under the banner of a new party called Ireland First.

Some members were also annoyed by Barrett’s stance on restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Barrett refused to attend demonstrations against lockdowns and had voiced support for Government restrictions, alienating much of the membership.

This week’s events leave Barrett’s future as party leader uncertain. While he has sweeping powers under the organisation’s constitution, the bulk of the party’s support base appears to have deserted him.

Across far-right groups on the messaging service Telegram, there has been a noticeable lack of support for Barrett or his efforts to retrieve his lost gold.