Identity Ireland () was a minor

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...

political party in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. A

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

party, it never achieved electoral representation at local or national level. It was launched in Dublin on 22 July 2015. Its founders were Gary Allen, Peter O'Loughlin and Alan Tighe. O'Loughlin, the party's national spokesperson, contested the

2016 Irish general election The 2016 Irish general election to the 32nd Dáil was held on Friday 26 February, following the dissolution of the 31st Dáil by President of Ireland, President Michael D. Higgins on 3 February, at the request of Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The genera ...

and

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

. As of 2023, the party was defunct.

Policy

Identity Ireland favoured Irish sovereignty by leaving the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and a return to the

Irish pound The pound ( Irish: ) was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or £Ir for distinction.) The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation unti ...

. The party supported a controlled border policy in order to curtail the immigration that, it said, was putting strain on the Irish welfare system. It also supported more careful vetting of incoming

asylum seekers An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A pers ...

. It supported the Irish branch of Pegida, and joined the

Fortress Europe Fortress Europe () was a military propaganda term used by both sides of World War II which referred to the areas of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, as opposed to the United Kingdom across the Channel. World War II defences In ...

coalition. It advocated the introduction of a two-strike law for serious offences, as well as the re-introduction of

penal labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included in ...

. It supported keeping Ireland's

neutrality Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

. It also advocated in favour of

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

Elections

Before founding Identity Ireland, Peter O'Loughlin unsuccessfully contested the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

for the

South constituency South () is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established in 2003 following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland when the Southern constituency w ...

, with 1.0% of the first preference votes. He also unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Carlow-Kilkenny by-election, receiving 1.4% (930) of the first preference votes. O'Loughlin also ran in the

in the Cork North-Central constituency as an independent, where he came last with only 0.36% (183) of first preference votes. O'Loughlin later contested the

2019 European Parliament election in Ireland The 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland is the Irish component of the 2019 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 24 May 2019, on the same day as the 2019 Irish local elections, 2019 local elections and a Thirty-eighth ...

, receiving 0.5% (3,682) of first preference votes in the Ireland South constituency. Another party member, Ted Neville, was unsuccessful as an independent candidate in four previous elections in the Cork South-Central constituency. He has appeared on television to discuss immigration, both as a member of Identity Ireland and as a member of the

Immigration Control Platform Immigration Control Platform (ICP) () is a political group which seeks to restrict immigration to Ireland. The organisation's website describes it as an "Irish NGO" funded by subscriptions and donations. It was not registered in Ireland as a po ...

group.

Status

, Identity Ireland was recorded in the Oireachtas Register of Political Parties, though as an organisation that had "not yet responded to commission's enquiries" by the

Standards in Public Office Commission The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) () is an independent body established in December 2001 by the Government of Ireland, Irish Government under the Standards in Public Office Act 2001. It replaced the Public Offices Commission which h ...

(SIPO). In 2017, SIPO stated that no statements of accounts had been received from Identity Ireland, in breach of the Electoral Act. In November 2020, SIPO announced that Identity Ireland were one of five political parties who failed to provide them with a set of audited accounts for 2019, in breach of statutory obligations. In July 2022, the Gardaí announced that Identity Ireland chairman Peter O'Loughlin was missing from his home in Cork. Renewing their appeal for information in tracing his whereabouts in early August 2022, the Gardaí and O'Loughlin's family stated that they were "concerned for his welfare". O'Loughlin was found safe and well in October 2022. As of January 2023, the party was no longer included on the Dáil register of political parties. The party's website has not been updated since 2016. Its social media presence was erased in approximately late 2022/early 2023.

Reception

Identity Ireland was often accused of being

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. Some of its press conferences and meetings, and its launch, were disrupted by protesters. The day after its launch the party claimed that membership increased by 25%, and that before the launch it had 115 members. Party leader Peter O'Loughlin was invited to speak at the first Pegida rally of 2016 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In January 2016, the party was criticized for suggesting a local Muslim community leader be thrown into the Irish Sea. A spokesperson for Identity Ireland subsequently stated that it did not intend to advocate violence, and that the phrase "fuck him into the Irish sea" was intended as a

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

Election results

European Parliament

References

External links

Official website
(archived 2023) {{Historic Irish parties 2015 establishments in Ireland Eurosceptic parties in Ireland Far-right politics in Ireland Irish nationalist parties Anti-Islam sentiment in Ireland Political parties established in 2015 Defunct political parties in the Republic of Ireland Identitarian movement Right-wing populism in Ireland Right-wing parties in Europe 2023 disestablishments in Ireland Political parties disestablished in 2023