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american friends

Sinn Féin has made a lot of money from its American friends

The party’s American fundraising arm had expenses of €150,000 from May-October.

SINN FÉIN RECEIVED donations of just over €57,000 in the US in the six months to October of this year.

29/7/2015 Dail Scenes Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

The finances of the party’s American fundraising arm, Friends of Sinn Féin, are documented in the organisation’s latest submissions the US Department of Justice.

The form, which can be viewed here, also notes that the organisations had expenses of $169,276.59 (€150,374) from 1 May to 31 October.

Some $54,200 (about €51,329) was spent on programme expenses, $31,800 (€30,115) on payroll and $13,900 (€12,165) on rent.

Friends of Sinn Féin’s headquarters is located on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, New York.

expenses fara.gov fara.gov

The biggest donor was Thomas Devlin from Newton in Massachusetts. He gave $10,000 (€9,475). Friends of Sinn Féin president James Cullen is among those who donated $5,000 (€4,734).

54 fara.gov fara.gov

Some €54,000 was listed as ‘fundraising event revenue’.

The money raised does not include the estimated $400,000 (€378,000) raised at the Friends of Sinn Féin dinner in New York in November.

Speaking last month, party leader Gerry Adams said:

“We’re very proud of our engagement with the diaspora and particularly with Irish-Americans.

“They want to support what’s happening here and given that they were joined by whatever proportion of the half-a-million of people who were scattered out of this state because of the government’s polices, they want to see a different setup here and they’re playing their part in all of that.”

Read: Sinn Féin accused of ‘pitching Galway tent’ after getting $400k from US-based donors

Read: Sinn Féin says the money it got from Martin Sheen and others ‘is not a secret’

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