Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm, Friends of Sinn Féin, has raised a further €233,000 in donations, new filings to the US department of justice show.
The Irish party’s US political arm is required to disclose its activities and fundraising under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of Sinn Féin and lodges filings every six months.
The latest filing, for the six-month reporting period to the end of April, shows that Friends of Sinn Féin raised $264,184 (€233,952).
The Lauren Harvey Living Trust was the biggest donor at $216,521 (€191,861). Ms Harvey lived in Arizona and died in a crash in November 2020. A park planner by profession, she was a regular visitor to Ireland and named her home Connemara Ranch.
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This is the second sum of money the group has received from the Trust, with $394,010 (€346,580) donated in 2022, and understood to be the last instalment. Sinn Féin has never acknowledged any connection to the woman.
A grant of $20,000 (€17,722) was provided by the Knights of the Red Branch, a California-based Irish-American organisation, to fund the purchase of adverts in US newspapers and websites in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day.
The filings also show that the fundraising arm sent $26,938 (€23,870) to Sinn Féin in Belfast.
The largest expense incurred by the group was $74,858 (€66,332) for newspaper advertisements. A further $36,567 (€32,407) was spent on travel expenses.
Mark Guilfoyle, president of Friends of Sinn Féin and a US attorney based in Kentucky, said the sum sent to Belfast was “a typical transfer we make from time to time to cover sanctioned expenses that the party incurs in the North”.
“It’s all in compliance with the electoral laws,” he said. “It’s a relatively common transfer that we’re able to make in the North.”
The overall amount raised is less than the €366,000 generated in fundraising in the six months to October 2024. Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle O’Neill did not travel to Washington, DC in March for St Patrick’s Day.
“This particular period from November to April is typically not our big fundraising period, that comes from May 1st to October 31st,” Mr Guilfoyle said.
“If you look at last year’s six-month report for the same six months, you’ll notice our website donations are actually up significantly. We have seen no drop-off in the enthusiasm of our activists here in the States. We do not typically schedule fundraisers around the trip to Washington. We like to keep the focus there on politics.”
Friends of Sinn Féin is active in briefing US politicians on political developments, the push for Irish unification and the Northern Ireland peace process. It regularly lists briefings with US politicians in the filings with the US department of justice in Washington, DC.
Eurotech Construction, a New York-based company founded by Co Tyrone native Fay Devlin, a long-time and generous financial supporter of Sinn Féin, provides the political group office space, rent-free, in the US.
In 2021, it was reported that Sinn Féin had accepted more than €3 million from the estate of Billy Hampton.
The former mechanic, who was not married and had no children, left some money to friends and acquaintances, but the main beneficiary of the will was Sinn Féin.
