Last month, as the US watched its presidential election unravel on national television, the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, made a fleeting visit to New York to meet supporters at his party's annual Friends of Sinn Fein dinner.
It was a typical night at the plush Sheraton Hotel. Familiar faces from the city's high-powered construction industry mingled over cocktails and trays of finger food before moving into the hotel's cavernous Imperial dining room.
Over steaks they heard the Sinn Fein leader lecture gently about peace and political progress. The brief message was as clear as always: don't give up, we need your continued support.
The audience did not need to be told twice. At $500 a plate for 1,000 guests that night alone brought a substantial sum into the Sinn Fein coffers.
Times have changed since the Clinton administration first allowed Mr Adams into the US in February 1994, when he was granted a 48-hour visit. Since the Sinn Fein leader's fledgling steps on to US soil, Friends of Sinn Fein has become a highly effective fundraising operation and political support network for the party.
Working out of Manhattan, the group has managed to capture not only hefty financial muscle but also to garner political support from Irish-American politicians in New York and Washington DC.
Not surprising then that Friends of Sinn Fein was quick to denounce any proposed curb on foreign fundraising for Irish political parties which would curtail a lucrative source of income. The group sees the proposal by the Taoiseach as a direct assault on Sinn Fein's powerful fundraising abilities in the US.
"I find this outrageous on a number of different levels," said Mr Larry Downes, a New York attorney who, along with his brother, Sean, helped establish the US fundraising group in 1995.
"First, it's blatantly targeted at Sinn Fein. To do this as part of an anti-corruption Bill is offensive and totally out of place," he said. "This is just sour grapes from Fianna Fail. Are they upset that they didn't raise as much money as us?"
ein as a political party, Friends of Sinn Fein has managed to collect nearly $4.5 million for Sinn Fein. Registered under a foreign agents registration act, the group must declare in detail to the US Department of Justice how, where and from whom it receives donations, how the money is spent and how much is sent overseas. As group officials were quick to point out, that total figure is a gross amount.
"Yes, we've raised almost $4.5 million, but you'd be surprised how fast that disappears," Mr Downes said.
For the annual dinner the Sheraton charges about $125,000, to which the group must add costs such as printing and postage for invitations.
"People can clearly see what we send to Ireland and what it is used for, and it is very different from the $4.5 million," he said.
But whatever the outcome of the Taoiseach's proposal, New York city belongs to Sinn Fein more than any other Irish party. Not even John Hume's international reputation brought his party any comparable political support in the US.
"Because of the ceasefires and the peace process they have access to corporate America, which they were denied before because they were identified with terrorism," said Jack Holland, a columnist for the Irish Echo newspaper and author of Hope Against History: The Ulster Conflict. "They are upwardly mobile now."
If the media euphoria over previous Sinn Fein visits has faded, so, too, has the earlier radical-chic glitz when Sinn Fein fundraisers drew the likes of Bianca Jagger. Less for the glitterati, the dinners and events at plush spots such as Windows to the World in the World Trade Center, the Plaza and the Sheraton now pull in the party faithful.
Sinn Fein's association with Northern Ireland holds more resonance for Irish-Americans than do other Irish parties, Mr Downes claimed.
While Friends of Sinn Fein also organises other events, the annual dinners are the set piece for Sinn Fein fundraising. Much of the support comes from the city's construction industry, and that is reflected in the dinner audiences. Guests are almost always mostly men with a sprinkling of women bobbing amid the sober suits. One of the city's largest general construction and contracting firms, Structure Tone, remains a staunch friend of Sinn Fein.
Last year, with the peace process under strain, political urgency allowed Mr Adams only 24 hours to visit for the annual fundraiser. But then the party's dinner also brought in nearly $500,000.
Last month security was tight, with members of the New York Police Department's Intelligence Unit flanking Mr Adams as two security officers checked on guests, waving a hand-held metal detector over handbags and briefcases.
With guests picking at a mountain of fine shrimp and delicate spinach samosas, the Sinn Fein leader worked the room with ease, nodding here, embracing there.
Irish-American CEOs joined barmen, former republican prisoners and a few local politicians. The New York Governor, Mr George Pataki, dropped by to boast of his Irish roots.
It was a typically warm welcome for the Belfast man on turf which has almost become his second home. Some joked about Armani endorsements, an old reference to his suits: others jibed about the police here treating him so well.
Standing before a huge Tricolour upon which was printed "A great change is at hand, Peace Justice and a United Ireland", he told the audience there would be no peace process if people like them had not worked as they had done.
