Not only do the stubby IRD shifters work on the bar-end pods, they are ideal on the bar-end pods. Regular Silver downtube shifters on bar end pods work fine but they really are long. The stubby IRD variant is closer to the length of Shimano and Suntour bar-end shifters. They are great.
In fact, it's a great pro-tip to buy a set of IRD thumbies purely for the purpose of using the thumbie base with a nice downtube shifter, and then use the stubby shifter as a great barcon shifter.
Bill Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA