Unlike cults accused of slyly exploiting the cheap labour of their members, the Unification Church, does not hide the fact that raising vast amounts of money is close to the top of its agenda.
Close, because according to the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Moonies, the continuation of God's family - prevented by Jesus Christ's crucifixion and because he did not marry and have children - is the supreme law of Moonie doctrine.
The self-styled Rev Moon established the Unification Church in North Korea in 1954. From there the former electrical engineering graduate moved on to bigger and better things as his so-called Divine Principle, based on the belief that he was The Second Coming, spread to America.
Now based in the United States the Unification Church has incredible assets tied up in the ownership of newspapers, hotels, TV stations and factories. Between 1975 and 1985, an estimated $746 million was sent to the Moonies from their Japanese followers.
Money is the crux of the Moonie movement. Foot soldiers are expected to spend up to 20 hours a day collecting money on the street, climb into a communal van where they might bed down with another 10 Moonies, then repeat the whole process the following day.
Albert Reynolds yesterday defended his decision to attend the week-long Washington conference organised by the Moonies. "I'm not endorsing anybody," he said, pointing out that speakers at previous Moonie conferences had included Mother Teresa and President Gorbachev.
At the so-called Fourth World Peace Conference the former Taoiseach was the keynote speaker at a gathering on Thursday night which was the high point of the week before today's mass blessing of 30,000 Moonies in the US capital.
Mr Reynolds spoke about his role in the Northern Ireland peace process and told his audience in the Capitol Hilton that "a happy family makes a happy nation".
Unification Church efforts to recruit members in Britain have foundered in recent years. Moonie devotees there had their heyday in the early 1980s.
"Their recruitment is not so high now," according to the UK-based Cult Information Centre. "Less than 500, because they move their recruits on to other countries." "Our concerns are about the amount of control placed over individuals. There have been many allegations about members parting with their own money, and for some people their personality changes and families become fractured. There is anecdotal evidence of sexual abuse, but overall the Unification Church controls sex. It is not a permissive group," a spokeswoman said.
The Moonies convinced Patrick Guerney to join them when he was 18 and he stayed with them until he was 25. His father, Stephen Guerney, thinks the Unification Church is "a great big con".
Patrick joined the Moonies after he took his A-levels and decided he wanted to see the world. Within a few years he was living in San Francisco, married to a German Moonie he had never met before and was the team leader of eight other Moonies.
"One of the great blows," his father says, "was Moon saying he was the Messiah. My son said one of his children was a cocaine addict and that millions went on his drugs while the other was a complete atheist who said she would shoot her father if he walked in the door".
Patrick has now left the Moonies but is finding it hard to get a job. "He has no history. It has taken seven years out of his life and he is bitter about it," says Stephen Guerney.
The Moonies in Ireland, who operate from 19 North Great George's Street in Dublin, are holding a talk today on Marriage and Family Values as part of their contribution to the Unification Church's global family festival. The talk will take place in Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge, at 8 p.m.
