Aontú dismisses six members of youth wing after racist messages uncovered in group chats

Ellen O'Donoghue

Aontú has dismissed six members of its youth wing after racist and antisemitic messages were uncovered in private WhatsApp groups.

Among those removed was Ógra Aontú leader John Bryan, who’s also been dismissed from his job with party leader, Peadar Tóibín.

The posts included racist slurs and conspiracy theories about Jewish people.

The story broke in the Sunday Independent today.

Mr Tóibín, who said that he was only made aware of the group in the last week, told Newstalk that it is unacceptable.

"It is an attack on many people, but it’s also an attack on the policies and the constitution of our party," Mr Tóibín said.

"We are a pluralist republican political party, and we have many valued members who are immigrants. Indeed, we stood many of these for the recent elections. We came under attack from the extremes for doing so, it didn’t deter us because equality is a foundation stone of our organisation."