Sinn Féin’s US organisation, Friends of Sinn Féin, raised $612,000 (€603,000) in donations and paid €53,552 in expenses for the party in Northern Ireland in the six months to April last.
The latest returns for the party’s New York-based advocacy and fundraising body show Friends of Sinn Féin bounced back from the fundraising slump of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contributions to Sinn Féin for the most recent half-year reporting period are among the highest to the party in recent years.
Mark Guilfoyle, the Kentucky-based president of Friends of Sinn Féin, said the €53,552 was sent to Northern Ireland in advance of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections in May.
He said all the money came out of the approved account of small donors under £500 in compliance with US and UK law.
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He described the six months as a “very strong” fundraising period. “We are hitting on all cylinders,” he said.
The political filings became public as Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill arrived in Washington DC for meetings on Monday with US Congressional leaders and prominent Irish-Americans about the stalemate in Northern Ireland over a new powersharing government.
Mr Guilfoyle confirmed Friends of Sinn Féin was funding her trip.
Friends of Sinn Féin’s fundraising efforts were helped by a windfall of $394,010 by way of a “distribution” from an entity called the Lauren Harvey Living Trust. Ms Harvey was originally from Ohio but lived in Tucson, Arizona. She died in a cycling accident in November 2020 aged 60. A park planner by profession, she was a regular visitor to Ireland and named her home after Connemara.
The donation comes three years after Sinn Féin received more than €3 million from the estate of English man Billy Hampton, the largest known donation to a Northern Ireland political party.
Friends of Sinn Féin received a further grant of $26,477 from the Knights of the Red Branch, a California-based Irish-American group that has supported the party financially in recent years.
The US group’s disclosures to the US Department of Justice are required for foreign political parties operating in the US under the American Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Some $187,000 was raised in fundraising campaign contributions from companies and business people in single donations ranging from $100 to $15,000.
A golf outing to New York course Hudson National Golf Club in Westchester County, north of Manhattan, proved to be a lucrative money-spinner for Sinn Féin’s US arm as donors paid $7,500 for a four ball, $2,000 to sponsor a tee or $1,000 to attend cocktails and dinner in the evening.
Mr Guilfoyle said Friends of Sinn Féin postponed the organisation’s annual fundraising dinner in Manhattan in favour of the golf event because of Covid-19 restrictions.
“Covid presented no obstacle to a very successful golf outing,” he said.
Co Tyrone businessman Fay Devlin was once again one of the most generous donors to the party’s US organisation as his building company Eurotech Construction donated $15,000. His company also continued to provide office space to Friends of Sinn Féin in New York City rent-free.
The biggest expenditure in the half-year was $124,630 in office and newspaper expenses spent mostly on adverts taken out in major US newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the LA Times, calling for the Irish Government to prepare for Irish unity.
The half-page adverts in the US newspapers, along with full-page adverts in Irish-American newspapers, were published around St Patrick’s Day last March and were open letters to Taoiseach Micheál Martin calling for him to convene a Citizens’ Assembly to plan for Irish unification.
Expenditure during the half-year totalled $270,167. Friends of Sinn Féin paid $53,443 to Hudson National to organise the golf outing and dinner on October 19th of last year.
Other expenses included $23,116 for hotels, trains and taxis to cover the costs of visits by Sinn Féin representatives including the party’s president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle O’Neill in Washington DC and New York.
The returns show a frenetic period of briefings by the party during the six-month period on political developments in Northern Ireland, the potential for Irish unification, the fallout from Brexit and the UK government proposals for legislation to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.
Among the most recent material circulated by Friends of Sinn Féin was a newsletter on July 8th last written by Sinn Féin representative to North America Ciarán Quinn about the departure of UK leader Boris Johnson entitled “The clown may be gone but some are trapped in the circus”.
