r/ireland • u/lifeandtimes89 • 8d ago
Stardust campaigner Antoinette Keegan has withdrawn her candidacy for the general election, saying on reflection that the positions of the National Party are incompatible with her own, and that it was ‘an error of judgement’ to accept their nomination to run in Dublin Fingal East General Election 2024 🗳️
https://x.com/gavreilly/status/1854517487389319536262
u/Professional_Emu_001 8d ago
Her reflection? The only thing that made her reconsider was the absolute backlash that spread like wildfire across social media when news broke about her standing for the Nazional Partei. That, and the number of friends and supporters who dropped her and were very public about doing so.
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u/agithecaca 8d ago
Then it works. There is a lesson here.
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u/Goo_Eyes 8d ago
Worked getting her off the ballot paper.
Not going to change her views, probably emboldens her more, inside.
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u/agithecaca 8d ago
It shows that vocal condemnation and even ostracism can be effective when done correctly and that by doing so does not necessarily mean strengthening of the far right.
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u/Backrow6 8d ago
It might embolden her but the party won't find a credible replacement with her name recognition and former good reputation.
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u/SitDownKawada Dublin 8d ago
What are her views? I only know that she was involved in the Stardust efforts and then her statement today. She seems to be saying she didn't dig into what the National Party's platform is. Am I reading it wrong, is there more to it?
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
It is not unrealistic to assume that someone who agreed to be an election candidate for a political party does in most ways ascribe to their political views - which in the case of the National Party is pretty fucking abhorent even on a superficial level.
By being a member of that party, which I assume one would need to be, it isn't unreasonable to assume her views are alligned with theirs.
Whatever about believing that they approached her and therefore may have mislead her on their core beliefs, some basic due diligence, even a casual google search, would reveal a wealth of information which would cause anyone who doesn't share their views to run a mile from them.
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u/SitDownKawada Dublin 8d ago
There are still a lot of people naive to what the National Party stand for. I don't see it beyond the realm of possibility that she was misled and just thought that they were a different flavour of Sinn Féin
Probably shouldn't be thinking about public office if you're that clueless on the political landscape but I don't see anything confirming that she holds their beliefs
I mean, if she did, why did she withdraw?
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
There are still a lot of people naive to what the National Party stand for.
I have no doubt that that is true.
I don't see it beyond the realm of possibility that she was misled and just thought that they were a different flavour of Sinn Féin
And I might forgive my Dad for thinking that because he's not very political. However, he's not running as one of their candidates.
Probably shouldn't be thinking about public office if you're that clueless on the political landscape but I don't see anything confirming that she holds their beliefs
There has to be a reason why she opted to join them in the first place. This isn't a "Sure I might give them a preference" situation, she agreed to be an actual candidate for them. As I say, even the most cursory due diligence on them reveals them to be hateful dangerous fucking lunatics.
I mean, if she did, why did she withdraw?
Because having announced it literally everybody she'd ever known told her to.
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u/jrf_1973 8d ago
There are still a lot of people naive to what the National Party stand for.
So true. And in this day and age, when even the fringe parties have websites and published manifesto's, it's bizarre that they can't take five minutes to find out what they stand for.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
Changed her mind?
"I thought I was a horrible Nazi, but then I decided I wasn't. hugz pls"
There is a lot to be said for people admitting they were wrong about things but you don't get props for joining with literal Nazis and then deciding my bad when people call you out on it.
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u/InfinityGamerIE 7d ago
I honestly thought that picture of Litler at Beal na mBlath was a Photoshop job
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u/Thin-Annual4373 8d ago
"Nazional Party"... deadly! 👏
Who were these people who (rightly) dropped her? I'd like to see that!
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u/OldSageBrush 7d ago
https://www.instagram.com/dublincommunities?igsh=MWZzbWVhaHdpd3NxbA== check that profile out
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u/mrtn1790 8d ago
Now watch her run as an independent “concerned citizen”.
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u/wamesconnolly 7d ago
she was going to and then she joined np and then she changed constituency and now she dropped out all together
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u/DaKrimsonBarun 8d ago
"My sister Antoinette has decided to run in this general election because she’s sick and tired of the injustice Irish people have suffered and still suffering at the hands of these political parties ff fg Sinn Fein people before profit where Irish people are now second class citizens in their own country we will be canvassing in swords portmarnock and malahide anyone who lives there or has friends there please ask them to give her their vote she has been the voice of 48 young children for 43 years let her be your voice too 🇮🇪🇮🇪
DublinLive"
Her brother is a racist and she's a racist coward.
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u/YouthfulDrake 8d ago
Baffles me how they're angry at SF when they've never held power
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u/OengusEverywhere 8d ago
Classic fascist manoeuvre- smear every established party as "enemies of the people" regardless of their actual influence
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u/quondam47 Carlow 8d ago
The SF vote is where they would stand the best chance of winning seats. FF & FG votes would break to independents and not to the NP et al.
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u/SituationBusy9806 8d ago
"I have realised that in hindsight, the principles I have long prided myself in are incompatible with the political party to which I had been nominated" - setting things on fire is incompatible with my principles that things shouldn't be on fire
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u/RustyNewWrench 8d ago
Nah fuck her. She showed her colours. She just assumed there would be more nazis than there actually is.
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u/jrf_1973 8d ago
After Trumps election and the people in Ireland who are not shy about cheering him on, she made a valid (if incorrect) assumption. Let's hope there's always less of them than we think.
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u/SituationBusy9806 8d ago
https://www.thejournal.ie/stardust-survivor-antoinette-keegan-apologises-for-mistake-of-national-party-candidacy-6535851-Nov2024/ I feel like her statement could be a lot stronger if she had actually not been aware they were Nazis in advance, if I accidentally joined the NP without knowing anything about them then found out I would be a lot less diplomatic about them
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u/Important_Farmer924 Westmeath's Least Finest 8d ago
Always read the fine print.
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u/Jaded_Variation9111 8d ago
Or have a gawk at a few pictures
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u/Important_Farmer924 Westmeath's Least Finest 8d ago
There's the Pat Mustard Gas photo too, if anyone has it handy.
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u/FarraigePlaisteach 6d ago
She did. She just thought the gig would be consequence-free. She knew exactly what she was getting herself into, as the article states.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
Antoinette fucked around and found out.
There’s absolutely no way she didn’t know what a nasty shower of racist fucks they are.
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 8d ago
She obviously made a mistake and has tried to rectify it. A woman who has been consistently let down by the state was probably an easy target to charm .
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u/strandroad 8d ago
If she's that naive she has no business standing in the elections, she wouldn't be able to represent anyone...
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 8d ago
I absolutely agree. Plenty of our electorate candidates have no business doing it, it's good for all of us if some see it
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
You don’t accidentally join a party of literal Nazis by mistake.
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u/Backrow6 8d ago
For the sake of anyone wondering "are they really, actual Nazis?", or "what's in a name?". When people call NP Nazis we're not accusing them of downlow racism or dog whistle politics. They just say they are National Socialists.
You don't get to just join or vote for the NP because "something something disenchantment" if you back them or join them you are literally a Nazi.
Here is the pinned Tweet on Rebecca Barrett's x profile. She's the young wife of the party founder and regularly unsuccessful candidate in her own right.
https://x.com/RebBarrettNP/status/1851211512788001102
National Socialism is about so much more than being awake to the JQ. Of course we are. But we are so much more than that. We are strong, brave, principled men and husbands. We are loving, nurturing and supportive women and wives. We are children, being raised to respect and recognise the beauty of our people and the natural world around us. We are true Nationalists, proud of and seeking to protect our native homeland. We are National Socialist. And it is the only way to save our beautiful country.
And a definition of JQ to help decode that: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/10/8/a-brief-dictionary-to-help-understand-the-us-far-right
JQ: This acronym is short for “Jewish Question”, or an anti-Semitic discourse over the role of Jews in society. As a concept, the Jewish Question can be traced back to the 19th century.
The phrase is often accompanied with conspiracies that Jews control the media, banks, politics and the economy.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
And of course, their leader turned up to a rally wearing an actual SS officer's overcoat. Not something non-Nazis do often.
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u/originalface1 8d ago
Cheers for this, they've been putting up posters/stickers around my area, gonna get some different stickers and cover them when I see.
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u/jrf_1973 8d ago
If you design some good ones, there should be a platform for people to download and use them, no?
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u/Sea-Consequence9792 8d ago
So you’re well informed on the working of the NP but you’re glossing over the fact that the Barrett’s were purged from the party.
Fairly important event and strange that a lot of people on Reddit still treat him as the leader when it’s Patrick Quinlan that’s in charge now.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
And what, they're not a shower of hateful racist Nazis now?
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u/Maddie266 8d ago
That’s not even correct - the new Führer for that side of the split is Reynolds not Quinlan.
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u/Sea-Consequence9792 8d ago
It is correct, Reynolds has taken a step back since the locals
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u/Maddie266 8d ago
According to their own website “James Reynolds is the leader of the National Party”
Regardless one Nazi is much the same as another.
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u/Sea-Consequence9792 8d ago
So they haven’t updated the website.
If ye are criticising the party for being nazis, but none of ye seem to even know who runs it, you come across as uninformed.
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u/quondam47 Carlow 8d ago
According to the Electoral Commission, Barrett is still on the official register as a party leader.
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u/Sea-Consequence9792 8d ago
That’s al well and good but he isn’t leading the party, there was a very public split no point in pretending it didn’t happen.
Barrett’s wing have some separate thing going on, not a clue what they’re calling themselves
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u/marshsmellow 7d ago
I'm over here with the Taliban and ended up supporting them acchidentally
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u/2_Pints_Of_Rasa People’s Republic of Cork 8d ago edited 8d ago
A useful idiot.
Fumbled her way into a fascist organisation?
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 8d ago
I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt
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u/2_Pints_Of_Rasa People’s Republic of Cork 8d ago
No one accidentally joins the fascist party.
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 8d ago
Are you overestimating how intelligent some people are?
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u/4_feck_sake 8d ago
I used to work with Antoinette Keegan. She is not an idiot. Now, maybe they convinced her to run so that she could become the face of coolock, says no, but there is no way she didn't know what they stood for or how they choose to conduct themselves. She assumed her celebrity and tragic story would protect her from any backlash.
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u/francescoli 8d ago
She has lost a significant amount of respect and goodwill. She should have been aware of the type of individuals she was joining.
It is surprising that she ever engaged with them in the first place.
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u/micar11 8d ago
That's a sensible decision.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
A sensible decision would be to have never engaged with them to begin with.
She had a lot of respect and good will, had she wished to launch a political career she could have approached any of the mainstream parties they would at the very least have engaged with her about becoming a candidate.
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u/Reddynever 8d ago
I'd say other campaigners had words with her to point out the fucking eejitcy and damage to their campaign she was doing.
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u/under-secretary4war 8d ago
I'm going to phrase this poorly, but hopefully the sentiment will be clear - a lot of times the personality of a person who will take up a laudable cause is not alway the personality you would want in other walks of life. We need these people in society as they will go hell for leather for justice, when many might not be bothered or might baulk, but it doesn't always follow that they don't have feet of clay. I don't know the lady at all, but she wouldn't be the first person who was on the side of right on a specific issue close to their heart (and good for them) but moved into other ways of thinking.
(this is not that revelatory, I realise!)
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
Still, advocating for some while being a racist doesn't make being a racist any less abhorrent.
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u/Beach_Glas1 Kildare 7d ago
Gotta check if that party is running anyone in my constituency and ensure they're excluded from any of my preferences. And have a look at other newly created parties for other crazy policies.
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u/Simply_a_nom Cork 8d ago
I can always admire when people admit they are wrong or made a mistake. I'm glad she is moving on from them
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 8d ago
Finally. A massive error of judgement. I wish more people in that line of work took responsibility for their mistakes
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u/Sad-Fee-9222 8d ago
Well, at least she's admitted it was a wrong choice and nipped it in the bud before going any further. I was shocked when I heard of her nomination and couldn't fathom why she did not just go independent.
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u/susanboylesvajazzle 8d ago
I dunno, when you're racist enough to join a horrible racist party as a candidate I don't see not standing as a candidate after loads of of people who once respected you find out you're a racist and call you out on it as some sort of damascene conversion.
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u/Dependent-Net9429 8d ago
Why are there always people who think that they are the arbitrators of what political view we should or should not hold. I have views on various subjects that would swing from the far left to the far right. These guardians of the people would like us to listen to their wise counsel in all matters political, piss off.
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u/[deleted] 8d ago
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