GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY National Party owns part of €400,000 bullion bought after Russian invasion of Ukraine

Leader James Reynolds reveals €350,000 of seized haul belongs to him and a colleague, reports Maeve Sheehan

The disputed leader of the National Party has spoken out about the fringe rightwing party’s supposed €400,000 pot of gold. James Reynolds said the party owned €50,000 of the €400,000 in bullion confiscated by gardaí last year after a bitter leadership row led to allegations of theft.

The remaining €350,000 worth of gold belonged to him and another member of the party, he said.

The tiny political organisation invested its €45,000 savings in 800 grams of gold after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Reynolds said.

He claimed the party lodged the gold in a secure vault in Dublin, where he and a colleague also held their own personal gold investments.

Following the heave against party founder Justin Barrett, who was “removed” as president last July, Reynolds said he moved the party’s gold to a new safety deposit box, unleashing a series of “bizarre” and “fantastical” events that culminated in gardaí confiscating

€400,000 worth of gold bars. Reynolds said reports of the National Party’s supposed €400,000 fortune were “nonsense”, and added that most of the gold seized was “privately owned”.

The seizure comprised around €350,000 in gold bars, which was the sum total of two separate investments owned by Reynolds and his party colleague, as well as the party’s gold, which has since increased in value to more than €50,000.

“That was privately owned gold. It belonged in private hands to private individuals. It had nothing to do with [the National Party]. And I am one of those private individuals,” Reynolds said.

He agreed to speak to the Sunday Independent about the bullion saga because “the story that was put out there doesn’t bear any resemblance to reality and it actually sounds a very fantastical story, very sensational”.

The story of the National Party’s allegedly missing gold began last July 23 when Barrett tweeted that a “considerable quantity of gold” had been removed from a vault belonging to the party, two members had been “expelled” for this

“traitorous” act and he had reported the matter to An Garda Síochána.

The following day, gardaí reported that they had recovered the gold bullion worth an estimated €400,000 and had taken it into custody until its ownership could be established.

Importantly, garda sources suggested no crime had been committed.

However, as Michael McDowell, the former government minister and attorney general, observed at the time, the “political establishment is scratching its collective head” wondering how “an extreme right micro party” could amass bullion to the value of €400,000.

The story took a twist when, a week later, a statement issued through the National Party’s official social media accounts declared that Barrett had been “removed” as president and Reynolds elected to fill the vacancy.

The statement cited “an overwhelming lack of confidence from active party members” in Barrett’s leadership, and noted his “hands-off ” style that had allowed the party to “go to seed”.

Barrett dismissed the statement as “farcical” and insisted he remained leader “in law”.

Seven months on, the leadership of the party still remains in dispute, with Barrett claiming to be the lawful leader while Reynolds says he is the democratically elected leader.

The Electoral Commission is due to decide soon on which faction can use the National Party name in the forthcoming local and European elections and effectively which side is legally in charge of the National Party and its assets.

The €400,000 in gold remains in garda custody.

The National Party was founded in 2016 on a right-wing, anti-immigration and anti-abortion platform.

Barrett is a former member of militant Catholic organisation Youth Defence and was in the past criticised for attending neo-Nazi rallies in Europe.

He was the chair of the No to Nice referendum campaign and ran as an election candidate.

The party’s vice-president, Reynolds, was ousted as national treasurer of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association in 2017.

The National Party has failed to get a single candidate elected, nor has it filed its financial statements to the Standards in Public Offices Commission (Sipo), in breach of electoral law, even though Reynolds said it raised donations.

“A political party that was raising money in donations and was not contesting elections for a number of years would have the ability to put money by, which it [the National Party] did,” Reynolds said.

After the “period of super-inflation” following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said the party decided to convert the cash pile to gold, buying 800 grams for about €45,000. “It was to protect the donation money of the party so its value wouldn’t be eroded by inflation when there wasn’t elections to be fought. That was the situation,” he said.

Reynolds said he and another party member had already invested in gold. Reynolds had invested a “six-figure sum” — “all accounted for” and “all tax-compliant” — while his colleague invested a smaller amount.

Both held their gold in a secure vault in Ballsbridge, Dublin, and the National Party’s gold was lodged to the same vault.

Reynolds said that when Barrett was “removed” as leader last year, his access to the party’s gold reserves was also “removed”.

“The original safety deposit box in the National Party name was emptied and the gold was put into another safety deposit box a number of feet away in the name of the National Party,” he said. “The reason was to deny access to the former leader, who was removed.”

When gardaí acted on Barrett’s allegation of theft, they seized all the assets linked to the National Party and its members, including Reynolds’s investment.

Because of the “bizarre and unusual circumstances surrounding the whole gold issue”, Reynolds said, gardaí “took the precaution of removing all the safety deposit boxes. They aggregated all of the contents of the safety deposit boxes and they came up with that figure” of gold worth €400,000.

“Even Barrett himself ... has denied this figure bore any reality to what the National Party owned in terms of gold reserves,” he added.

Reynolds is still waiting for the return of his six-figure investment.

“It’s in process. That is not an issue,” he said. “We are in communication with the Electoral Commission and we are in a process of concluding that issue in relation to the leadership of the party.”

He also said that “without prejudging the Electoral Commission, we believe they will rule in favour of the party and enable us to properly participate in the forthcoming elections”.

As the leadership dispute rumbles on, Reynolds said the National Party was preparing to run candidates in the forthcoming European and local elections on an anti-immigration platform. He claimed “Ireland is not the place it used to be”, with immigration “an issue now that is on everybody’s lips, for something that wasn’t talked of a number of years ago”.

“And then you have problems facing rural Ireland and not-so-rural Ireland by an out-of-control green agenda that seems to be not listening to the legitimate concerns of people affected by government and EU decisions in relation to climate policy,” Reynolds said.

The Electoral Commission said: “The Registrar of Political Parties is considering applications by two individuals for the amendment of the register of political parties in respect of the National Party. A decision is expected shortly.”

Sipo, which received a complaint about the National Party’s failure to file financial statements as required by law, decided to comment, “in order to be fair to all parties involved”.

The Sunday Independent attempted to contact Justin Barrett.

The original safety deposit box in the party name was emptied