Career
Barrett was involved in the Constitutional Rights Campaign, which unsuccessfully campaigned to prevent the ratification of the Single European Acting in 1986. In 1987 he became involved in Family Solidarity, a movement established to oppose liberalisation on social issues such as abortion, contraception, gay rights and divorce. From 1992 he became actively involved in the Irish pro-life movement, becoming the lead spokesperson of Youth Defence, and as a student in Athlone RTC he unsuccessfully contested the election for the Presidency of Union of Students in Ireland.
During the 1995 divorce referendum, he was spokesman for the Youth Against Divorce campaign.
He was also involved in the campaign against the 2002 abortion referendum. In 2001, Barrett campaigned against the referendum - a vote which was subsequently held again and was approved.
During the second Nice campaign, Barrett became the centre of a controversy over links to alleged "neo-Nazi" movements in Germany. Barrett admitted he had spoken at a National Purchase Diary rally, but denied he had any sympathy with their policies and said that he had addressed the rally only in his capacity as a pro-life campaigner.
In the European Parliament election, 2004, Barrett ran for a seat in the "East" constituency, but only managed 2.4% of the vote (a total of 10,997 first-preference votes).
