The National Alliance was established in July 2024 after small far-right parties failed to achieve success in that year's European and local elections, partly due to vote splitting.[3][4]
The stated goal of the group was to ensure votes for far-right parties were not split in the 2024 general election.[1] The group stated that, besides the National Party, Ireland First and The Irish People, other parties were also involved in discussions to join, but they had been "not willing to make the concessions ... needed to make the alliance work".[3] These included the Irish Freedom Party[5] and Liberty Republic (formerly Direct Democracy Ireland).[citation needed]
The group is not a registered political party and its name did not appear on ballot papers. The leader of the far-right Irish Freedom Party, Hermann Kelly, said that this was one of the reasons his party did not join the National Alliance.[5] In September 2024, the Electoral Commission rejected an effort to change the name of The Irish People party to "National Alliance". The body ruled 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 the Electoral Reform Act 2022 forbids.[1][6]
Parties comprising the National Alliance nominated a total of 32 candidates in the 2024 general election.[7] None were elected.[8]
Organisation and ideology
As of October 2024, the group's election committee included Derek Blighe of Ireland First, Fingal County Council member Patrick Quinlan of the National Party and Anthony Cahill of The Irish People.[1]
The alliance has been described as anti-immigrant and as having far-right views on immigration.[1][3] Some of the alliance's stated principles include "Ireland belongs to the Irish", "We have no other home, if there are no Irish, there is no Ireland" and "House the Irish, not the world".[1][9] Other positions the group has outlined include opposition to abortion, defending "the right to free speech",[10] and cutting funding to "subversive NGOs that undermine [Ireland's] national interests".[11]
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