[13] A schoolteacher from Clonakilty, she stood in Cork South-West in the 1997 general election as an independent on an anti-immigration platform, winning 0.84% of the first-preference vote.
In 2002 the leader of the far-right British National Party Nick Griffin encouraged Irish voters to support Immigration Control Platform and offered financial aid to the organisation.
[18] Journalist Harry McGee in 2003 described Irish media coverage of ICP as disproportionate to its small size and generally hostile to its views.
[19][20] In 2003 Ní Chonaill along with then-chairman John Oakes attended a discussion on immigration at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.
[21] Ní Chonaill felt that a January 2003 Supreme Court decision, which permitted deportation of illegal immigrants with Irish-born children, did not go far enough.