Youth Defence
| Formation | 1986 |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
|
Spokesperson
|
|
|
Former Leader
|
Justin Barrett |
| Website |
youthdefence |
Youth Defence is an Irish organisation that opposes legalisation of abortion. It was founded during the 1986 divorce referendum. It shared offices with the Eurosceptic group Cóir, but is not openly aligned to any specific political party.
Youth Defence was founded during the 1986 divorce referendum to campaign against the legalisation of divorce. Niamh Nic Mhathúna was one of the spokespeople. They had sixty members, most of whom were children of Family Rights Council members. There is not much activity from the group after that referendum.
However, during the X Case in 1992, Youth Defence reemerged, campaigning against abortion. They claimed to be newly founded by Niamh Nic Mhathúna as well as six other anti-abortion activists including Peter Scully (who co-founded Family & Life in 1996), Úna Bean Nic Mhathúna and Una's husband Séamus Mac Mathúna.
James Reynolds, later deputy president of the National Party was the County Longford Youth Defence affliate in the early 1990s.
According to the CRO, Youth Defence is a registered business name, which means the organisation does not need to file annual accounts.
The National Library of Ireland describes Youth Defence as "a pro-life organisation and lobby group with strong neo-Nazi links". Far-right Irish nationalist Justin Barrett is a former PRO and leader of the group. During the 2002 Second Treaty of Nice referendum it was revealed that Justin Barrett had attended and spoken at neo-nazi party events in Germany and Italy. He initially denied the charges, and threatened newspapers with libel suits, but later conceded that he at spoken at those events. Youth Defence denied this, calling it a "media smear campaign". The Pro Life Campaign, another Irish anti-abortion group, strongly criticised Barrett for taking part in these events.
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Wikipedia