Political parties that share far-right views on immigration have formed an alliance in a bid to maximise their chances of winning Dáil seats in the upcoming general election.
Some 19 candidates are currently running under a banner called the National Alliance. The alliance includes Ireland First, the National Party and the Irish People, as well as some Independents
It was established over the summer in the wake of the local and European elections with a statement at the time saying the agreement was made “to ensure that votes are not split by these parties at the next general election”. Just six candidates who principally campaigned on anti-immigration and/or fringe right-wing tickets won council seats in June.
In a video posted on social media this week, Derek Blighe of Ireland First, who is among the leadership of the National Alliance, described it as “people working together to try to eliminate the carry on in the local and European elections”.
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“There was too many candidates running and had we worked together we would have secured many more seats,” Mr Blighe said.
The National Alliance website outlines “shared principles” including “Ireland belongs to the Irish. We have no other home, if there are no Irish there is no Ireland”, “house the Irish not the world” and, on immigration specifically, it says “end the plantation”.
Along with Mr Blighe, its leadership and “election committee” are listed as Cllr Patrick Quinlan of the National Party and Anthony Cahill of the Irish People.
Mr Blighe – who plans to run as a candidate in Cork North Central – was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected to the European Parliament in the Ireland South constituency in June. He secured just more than 25,000 first preference votes. He got almost 900 votes in the local election but missed out on a seat on Cork County Council. Mr Blighe has been described in the Dáil as far-right, a label he has rejected.
Ireland First’s campaign literature in advance of the June elections argued that it is centre right and that Government and Opposition parties are “far left”.
Mr Quinlan is a councillor for the National Party, which was revealed last year to possess about €400,000 in the form of gold bullion. In recent months there has been a dispute between James Reynolds and Justin Barrett over who is the leader of the party, with both men claiming the title.
Mr Cahill of the Irish People failed to get elected to the European Parliament in the Midlands Northwest constituency in June. He got just more than 4,500 first preference votes. He intends to run in Galway West in the general election. He has previously disputed that his party’s views on immigration are far right, and has spoken of how he regards himself as left-of-centre politically.
Last month the registrar of political parties, chief executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Electoral Commission) Art O’Leary, refused an application by the Irish People to change its name to National Alliance. The registrar found that it was “not an application to amend the name and emblem of an existing party, but rather constitutes an application to seek to register an alliance of a number of already registered political parties which is not permissible under the provisions of the Electoral Reform Act 2022”.
The National Alliance and its component parties did not respond to queries from The Irish Times.
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