Gerry Adams denies New York fundraiser was elitist

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has denied a fundraising dinner held in New York last week was "elitist".

The event cost € 465 each for guests and raised € 400,000 for the party.

Mr Adams said the people who attended could afford the cost of the dinner.

He said: “It wasn’t elitist for the people who were there.

“These people can (afford € 465) and they want to contribute.”

Mr Adams said the focus of the event was to engage with the diaspora and in particular Irish Americans.

He said: “It was a very good event and a very successful event.

“I know you are simply voicing genuine journalistic curiosity about this but I think the other parties are engaging in begrudgery and jealousy.”

Guests paid around € 465 a head to attend the ‘Friends of Sinn Fein’ dinner in New York.

They enjoyed fillet mignon washed down with Californian cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay while a band serenaded them with Irish standards such as The Town I Loved So Well and Whiskey in the Jar.

The evening was a night of celebration for the party’s biggest US fundraisers as they marked the 20th anniversary of the annual dinner.

Mr Adams and deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald attended the event.

It is believed to have been the most successful Sinn Féin US fundraiser dinner ever.

Friends of Sinn Féin has raised more than $12 million for the party since it was established in 1995 to put a formal structure on the Republican movement’s US fundraising efforts during the Peace Process.