The NSIWP was founded in 1968 by Terence Allan-Byrne in
Irishtown, Dublin. Among its members was Jos Mussche, a former member of the
Dutch SS. Its newsletter was called
Phoenix. The party had close links to the
National Socialist British Workers Party, and was affiliated to the
World Union of National Socialists. In 1979, Byrne had a
swastika carved into his chest; he refused to allow an
Indian doctor treat it and was referred to another hospital, where a different doctor refused to treat him and ‘remarked that the wounds he was receiving were costing the tax-payers a lot of money’. The NSIWP sought to recruit
UNIFIL veterans "who had witnessed at first hand the devastation caused by Israeli power". The NSIWP only ever had a handful of members and never contested any elections; however, it was important in producing of
Nazi paraphernalia for the European and British movement, as, unlike most European countries, Ireland had no law like the British
Race Relations Acts that forbade production or sale of neo-Nazi material. They also sent threatening letters to
Irish Jews and
Black people living in Ireland.
Tomás Mac Giolla (
Workers' Party, a socialist party),
Tony Gregory (an independent left-wing TD) and
Alan Shatter (a Jewish
Fine Gael TD) raised the matter in
Dáil Éireann in 1985; "Commander" Byrne died in the early 1980s, and the party ceased to exist by the late 1980s. Colm Tarrant, secretary of the NSIWP, later went on to work with the Irish–Arab Society, an
anti-Israel organisation. ==References==