He played Gaelic football with his local club Austin Stack's and was a member of the Kerry senior inter-county team from 1923 until 1933.
The third of five sons and six daughters, his father, John Barrett (1858–1915), was a well known pig and cattle dealer while his mother, Nora O’Mahony, hailed from Ballyduff.
Tragedy was to strike the family again two years later when the eldest brother, Christy, died at the age of 30 after contracting pneumonia during the great flu epidemic.
The onus then fell on Joe and his fourteen-year-old brother Jimmy to hold the business together, however, in spite of the economic realities of the time the Barrett's survived.
At the age of fifteen Barrett joined the Irish Volunteers, a revolutionary organisation that hoped to established independence for Ireland.
It proved difficult at a time when political tensions divided friends and neighbours and boycotts of certain shops and businesses were regular occurrences.
In 2007 he was enraged when it was announced that God Save the Queen would be played at Croke Park due to Ireland's rugby international with England.
The county football decider saw Austin Stack's take on Kerins O'Rahilly's with Barrett lining out as captain of his team.
While the club surrendered their football crown to John Mitchels, the hurling championship decider saw more success coming Barrett's way.
Austin Stack's goal-scoring abilities proved decisive again as Barrett's side collected a second title in three years on a score line of 4–4 to 2–5.
In 1931, Barrett was again captain of the Austin Stack's hurling and football teams and guided both sides to their respective county finals.
In the football decider fierce local rivals John Mitchels provided the opposition in a bid to stop the march of Barrett's side.
The game was a close affair but two key goals for Austin Stack's sealed a 2–7 to 1–3 victory and a third county football title for Barrett.
A fifth consecutive county football championship final appearance beckoned with divisional side North Kerry providing the opposition.
After a thrilling sixty minutes Austin Stack's were the champions by 2–3 to 1–5 and Barrett added a fourth county winners' medal to his collection inside of five years.
After the fighting, Irish Free State army captain Con Brosnan managed to get safe passage guarantees for Republican players like John Joe Sheehy and Barrett to play games, and together they used football to help overcome the bitterness.
While Barrett played no part in that game he was included in the starting fifteen for Kerry's subsequent All-Ireland final against Dublin.
P. J. Kirwan scored Dublin's second-half goal while Paddy McDonnell, Jack Murphy and Joe Stynes chipped in with a point each to halt Kerry's march.
In the dying moments of the game John Baily had a goal disallowed for Kerry, however, Con Brosnan popped up to clinch the winning point.
The All-Ireland title looked to be heading to Kildare, however, Bill Gorman scored a 59th-minute equaliser for Kerry to force a draw.
With five minutes to go John Joe Sheehy breached the Kildare defence, however, his shot at goal hit the post.
A narrow 1–7 to 2–3 score line gave Barrett's team a second consecutive title in football's secondary competition.
Ned Sweeney's first-half goal gave Kerry a lift and was enough to survive a great comeback by Kildare.
John Joe Sheehy and Paul Doyle scored five points each from frees while Paddy Martin landed a 30-yard drop-kick into the net for Kildare's only goal of the day.
[9] With that Barrett collected a third All-Ireland winners' medal, while he also became the first Kerry man to lift the Sam Maguire Cup.
[7] Kildare hoped to stop a Kerry three-in-a-row in the subsequent All-Ireland final and gave a good account of themselves.
In a similar pattern to the previous year, Kerry trailed at half-time, however, Bill Landers scored a quick goal straight after the interval.
Kerry's dream of creating history came to an abrupt end in the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final as eventual champions Cavan defeated Barrett's side by 1–5 to 0–5.