Celebrity donors help Sinn Féin raise $12m in United States
Sinn Féin's US fundraising arm brought in over $12 million (€10.8m) in the past two decades, from trade unions, construction firms, and Hollywood celebrities.
15,000 donations to the Friends of Sinn Féin group from 1995 to 2014 have been analysed in a data-driven report in today, revealing celebrities including Martin Sheen, Viggo Mortensen, Dennis Hopper, and Anjelica Houston donated to the party.
The largest donor, however, was philanthropist Chuck Feeney - famous for his contributions to Irish universities – who donated $780,000 (€706k) to the group.
Trade unions donated more than $1million over the two decades, with more than $200,000 of that coming from the Laborer's International Union of North America alone.
The figures were compiled by by analysing two decades of reports filed with the US Department of Justice.
It showed that fundraising by the Friends of Sinn Féin was strongest on the US east coast in areas like New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC – but California also contributed several hundred thousand dollars.
Similar organisations, the Friends of Fine Gael and Friends of Fianna Fáil, raised only a fraction of Sinn Féin's funds in the same 20-year period.
