The dossier · Fully sourced

People named Justin Barretttwo men, one continent apart, both born in 1971

One is a paragraph. The other is a paper trail. Below: a single, sourced disambiguation entry for the American developmental psychologist; then the longer dossier on the Irish political activist. The two men are not the same man; they have, on the available record, almost no biographical features in common other than year of birth and combined name.

I. The American academic — one entry, one paragraph

  • Justin L. Barrett (born 1971, United States) — experimental psychologist; one of the founding figures of the cognitive science of religion as an academic field. B.A. in psychology from Calvin College; Ph.D. in experimental psychology, with cognitive and developmental focus, from Cornell University. Formerly senior researcher and Director of the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford; subsequently Thrive Professor of Developmental Science and Director of the Thrive Center at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena. Founder and president of Blueprint 1543; founding editor of the Journal of Cognition and Culture. Books include Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (2004), Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds (2011), and Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion (2012); author of more than sixty chapters and articles on cognitive, developmental and evolutionary approaches to the study of religion. Has, on the available record, never quoted Adolf Hitler, attended a rally of the German NPD, addressed a meeting of Forza Nuova, or worn a Nazi SS uniform on the steps of any country's parliament. Wikipedia

That entry is the entry for that man. The remainder of this page is the dossier on the other.

II. The Irish activist — biography

Justin Barrett (born 13 April 1971, Republic of Ireland) is an Irish political activist. He came to public notice in the 1990s as a leading figure in the anti-abortion campaign group Youth Defence and as one of the principal organisers of the No to Nice campaign during the two Irish referendums on the Treaty of Nice in 2001 and 2002. He published a book, The National Way Forward!, in 1998. He founded the National Party in November 2016 and led it until July 2023.

He has stood, without success, in the 2004 European Parliament election as an independent, in the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election for the National Party, and in the 2024 European Parliament election. In April 2024 he founded a successor organisation called Clann Éireann, which The Irish Times reported as having fewer than twenty members. Wikipedia The Journal The Irish Times

III. Far-right associations on the public record

The substantial body of reporting on Mr Barrett, in Irish, British and Israeli outlets, sets out a continuous series of associations with European neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organisations from 2000 onward.

  • 2000 — Passau, Germany. Guest of honour at a rally of the German neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), at which anti-semitic speeches, peppered with quotations from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, were delivered. Mr Barrett later spoke at several other NPD events. Wikipedia RTÉ News, 11 October 2002
  • June 2001 — Milan and Bologna, Italy. The website of Forza Nuova, an Italian neo-fascist party, reported that Mr Barrett had attended a number of their events. Wikipedia
  • November 2002 — Milan, Italy. Mr Barrett attended and spoke at a Forza Nuova meeting. Wikipedia The Irish Times
  • October 2002 — Dublin. When the German and Italian appearances were reported during the second Treaty of Nice referendum campaign, Mr Barrett initially denied them and threatened the reporting newspapers with libel actions. He subsequently conceded that he had spoken at the events. RTÉ News
  • 2024 — Twitter / X. In response to a question, Mr Barrett posted an image of Adolf Hitler with the description "the greatest leader of all time". Sunday World
  • Ongoing. The Wikipedia entry on Mr Barrett, citing reporting in The Irish Times, RTÉ and other outlets, describes him as having publicly quoted Hitler's Mein Kampf on multiple occasions, performed Nazi salutes, and engaged in Holocaust denial. The same characterisation appears in The Times of Israel's coverage of Irish neo-Nazi activity. Wikipedia Times of Israel

The corroborating note from his own deputy is in §V below.

IV. Selected public statements and incidents

  • September 2019 — Dublin. Asked about Hazel Chu, then Lord Mayor of Dublin (born in the Coombe to parents from Hong Kong), Mr Barrett said: "She is an Irish citizen, I accept that, that is the law until we get the law in our own hands." Wikipedia
  • September 2019 — Galway. Mr Barrett was doused with a milkshake by counter-protesters in Galway city centre while standing under a banner reading "Ireland belongs to the Irish". The Irish Post
  • 9 November 2023 — Leinster House, Dublin. At an anti-immigration protest on the steps of the Irish parliament, Mr Barrett appeared in a Nazi SS uniform. He attempted a speech and was jeered. Wikipedia The Phoenix
  • August 2024 — Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork. Mr Barrett held a rally at the place of Michael Collins's death, under the banner of his new organisation Clann Éireann. Videos circulating on Irish social media showed approximately a dozen masked men in black fatigues and balaclavas standing under tricolours and Clann Éireann insignia. Cllr Shane O'Callaghan called the group "a bunch of buffoons in fancy dress" whose ideology represented "the exact opposite of everything that Collins stood for". On the same occasion Mr Barrett introduced a "protection unit" of his new movement, An Sciath Náisiúnta, stating that it would act within the law but would be ready to defend itself "with as much violence as is necessary". Irish Examiner Modern Insurgent
Leinster House in 1911
Leinster House, Dublin — photographed in 1911. Seat of the Oireachtas. On 9 November 2023, on the steps in the foreground, Mr Barrett appeared in a Nazi SS uniform, attempted a speech, and was jeered. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

V. The deputy's letter

The most useful single source on Mr Barrett's tenure as leader of the National Party is the open letter posted on the party's own website by his deputy, James Reynolds, headed "Why the National Party needed New Leadership". The letter remains live at nationalparty.ie/new-leadership-james-reynolds/ (an archived copy is held by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, captured 22 January 2025) and sets out, on the party's own letterhead, the grounds for Mr Barrett's removal in July 2023.

His primary activity was to post nonsensical tweets on his @NP_DBS twitter account. James Reynolds, Mr Barrett's own deputy, on the official National Party website

Among the further reasons given by Mr Reynolds, in his own words on the party's own site:

  • Mr Barrett had "no medium or long-term vision apart from a fanciful belief in an impending economic Armageddon which would inexplicably propel the National Party to power".
  • After Gardaí seized his car for being driven on a learner's permit, Mr Barrett "purchased a €13,000 car for himself. This was bought by dipping into party funds".
  • He "believed the party should engage in puerile 'shock and awe' tactics like posting Mein Kampf quotes".
  • He had marginalised key party staff, including the party's videographer and national organiser, and had become "totally withdrawn from the party and […] inactive as leader".

The Mein Kampf line is on the public record, with attribution to the deputy who replaced him, on the website of the party Mr Barrett founded.

VI. The electoral record

Three contests of public record, in chronological order:

  • 2004 European Parliament election — East constituency. Independent. 10,997 first-preference votes (2.4%). Not elected. ElectionsIreland.org
  • 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election. National Party, slogan "Right So Far". 183 first-preference votes (0.68%). Eleventh of fifteen candidates. Eliminated on the third count. Wikipedia RTÉ Election Results
  • 2024 European Parliament election. Mr Barrett also stood. The Journal — EU 2024 candidate page

Two decades, one electoral peak (2.4%), and one floor (0.68%). The trajectory is on the record because the State publishes the record.

VII. The leadership dispute

  • July 2023. The National Party announced that Mr Barrett had been removed as president and replaced by James Reynolds. Mr Barrett denied that he had been removed; both men claimed sole leadership. The Journal The Irish Times
  • April 2024. Mr Barrett announced the formation of Clann Éireann. He insisted it was not a political party and that he had not conceded the leadership of the National Party. The Irish Times later reported the new organisation as having fewer than twenty members. Wikipedia
  • September 2024. A short-notice "meeting" of the National Party, attended by one person, passed a motion to dismiss Mr Barrett. The Electoral Commission ruled that meeting invalid. The Journal RTÉ News
  • 19 October 2024. A second AGM of the National Party was held. The Electoral Commission later ruled this AGM legitimate. Electoral Commission
  • September 2025. The Electoral Commission rejected Mr Barrett's appeal against his removal. The Register of Political Parties was updated on 24 September 2025 to record his removal. The current leader of the National Party is Patrick Quinlan; the deputy leader is Gerry Kinneavy. Electoral Commission Wikipedia

VIII. Sources, posture, corrections

Each claim on this page is followed by a link to the report or ruling that supports it. The principal English-language sources are The Irish Times, RTÉ News, The Journal, the Irish Examiner, The Phoenix, the Sunday World, the Irish Post, and the public records of the Electoral Commission of Ireland and ElectionsIreland.org. Where the Wikipedia entry is the most accessible aggregator of multiple primary reports it is also linked, in addition to the underlying primary sources where those are publicly available.

This page sets out matters that are on the public record, sourced. It does not editorialise. It does not assert that Mr Barrett holds the views that the events listed above suggest he holds; it lists the events. It does not paraphrase contested reporting in its own voice; it attributes the reporting to the publishing outlet. It does not reproduce material not already in the public domain through reputable Irish or international media; it links the reader to that material at source. The site is published in reliance on the defences of truth (s.16, Defamation Act 2009), honest opinion based on stated facts (s.20), fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest (s.26), and qualified privilege in respect of statutory rulings.

If a factual claim on this page is wrong, the editor would like to know. Corrections, supplied with a public source, may be sent to info@justinbarrett.ie and will be acted on where they are right.

The forename and surname have their own short reference pages — Justin, Barrett — and a combined-name page at The name. The wider list of well-documented bearers of the surname is at Notable Barretts.