Cllr. Patrick Quinlan has stepped down as National Party leader after posting a public resignation letter yesterday, 9th of August, citing “difficulties” within the party that he said had “not” been addressed.
Among the issues raised were concerns about the use of party funds, “networking” trips to European destinations, and access to membership information.
Quinlan, who was elected to Fingal County Council to represent the Blanchardstown–Mulhuddart LEA, said that, having been asked to stay on as leader, he agreed to retain the position on the understanding that issues he had raised would be addressed.
“When I later set out those difficulties in writing to the Ard Chomhairle, the same body that had voted me back into the leadership voted me off the Ard Chomhairle,” he said.
“I have said nothing publicly in the two months since, because I hoped a statement both sides could stand over might be reached. It became clear that what was wanted was not an agreed account but a different one. I am setting out my own, because the membership is entitled to it.”
“I took on the leadership to build a serious, disciplined nationalist movement rooted in Irish estates and parishes, capable of challenging the establishment on its own terms. I could not do that without the basic means to lead.”
Explaining his position, he said, “I asked, repeatedly, for access to the registered membership, so that our representatives could contact the people who had joined to support them. I asked for access to party emails and to the party’s finances. I asked for verified accounts for our representatives who speak publicly, for proper editing tools so that the entire media workload did not rest on one man, and for the resources to organise our own independent rallies.”
“None of it was refused outright. It was simply never done. Decisions that should have taken days ran into weeks and then months, until the asking itself became the work. Our representatives were left using free software and left with no route to the members in their own areas. A leader without access to the membership, the accounts or the email is a leader in name only, and I was not prepared to hold the title on those terms,” he said.
Pointing to alleged issues with the administration surrounding in-party communications, he said, “I want the membership to understand how these matters are decided. Decisions of the Ard Chomhairle, including the leadership of this party and the removal of its officers, are taken by poll in a messaging group. There is no meeting. There are no minutes.”
He continued, “There is no record any member can ever ask to see. Some of those votes are taken when the person they concern is not present in the chat at all. Every member of that group knows this to be true. A party that intends to govern the country cannot govern itself by phone poll, and no member should have to take anybody’s word, including mine, for what was decided and by whom.”
Expressing his faith in the party more broadly, he said, “None of this came from the wider membership. It came from those holding administrative control of the party’s operations, whose energy has gone into European networking, international conferences and gestures abroad rather than the work of building a movement here.”
“Elections in Ireland are won leaflet by leaflet and door by door. They are not won in a hotel ballroom in another country.”
He pointed to an alleged over-focus on European influences, saying, “The clearest example is this. What began as a Summer School to educate our own young people in Irish nationalist thought, history and identity was turned into another international conference with guests brought in from abroad.”
Quinlan said that he had refused to sign a statement approved by the Ard Chomhairle after his resignation, which he claimed had him “thanking my colleagues on the Ard Chomhairle for supporting my decision” when they had “voted me off”.
“I remain a member of this party. My faith was never in titles. It is in the ordinary members who give their evenings, their weekends and their own money to this cause, who stand on doorsteps and put up posters and ask for nothing in return, and who deserve to be told the truth about how their party is run.”
|I will continue to serve the people of Blanchardstown and Mulhuddart as their councillor, and I will continue to do the work regardless of what office I hold,” he concluded.
In response to the resignation, a spokesperson for the National Party acknowledged that, “It is the case that there have been difficulties in recent months between Patrick Quinlan and the wider Ard Chomhairle. Efforts to mediate and find an agreed path forward have evidently failed.”
It alleged that Cllr Quinlan’s statement of 8 August “makes several allegations which risk damaging the reputation of the party” and which “require a response”.
It said that the membership data of the party “is stored securely in accordance with the party’s data protection policies and our obligations under public law,” adding, “this sensitive information cannot be reproduced or circulated without good reason.”
On the issue of funds, it said, “The Ard Chomhairle did not agree with Patrick Quinlan’s stated reasons to acquire extensive access to membership data or the intended use of party funds.”
It said, “The Ard Chomhairle holds a combination of in-person and virtual meetings. Frequently, due to the time-sensitive nature of issues facing the party, decisions are made by virtual open ballot votes rather than exclusively at in-person meetings.”
“Cllr Quinlan also raised his personal view objecting to the convening of some party events such as the successful International Conference recently held in Galway,” it said, adding that he had “failed to persuade a majority of the Ard Chomhairle to adopt his opinion.”
It said that the National Party “functions through an elected Ard Chomhairle which adheres to the majority principle and a policy of collective responsibility,” and that “Cllr Quinlan’s unilateral statement was not authorised or supported by the Ard Chomhairle.”