Republican Merchandising, the Dublin-based Sinn Féin company that runs a book and merchandise retail business, donated £181,486 (€205,744) to the party in Northern Ireland in the twelve months to July 2024, said the UK’s Electoral Commission.
The donations were made in eight payments ranging in size from £45,000 to £8,458.
The company did not make any donations to the party in Northern Ireland before July 2023, or after July 2024, according to the commission website. The UK held a general election in July 2024.
Republican Merchandising made a profit of €32,139 in 2024, on a turnover of €271,222, but a loss of €92,650, on a turnover of €283,300, in 2022, according to its filed accounts.
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The company has a shop in the Sinn Féin premises at 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, and a website. It sells books, prints, postcards, mugs, badges, and flags, as well as items of clothing including hats, jerseys, T-shirts and Christmas gifts.
While most of the items have a republican/Irish unity theme, the shop also sells a range of pro-Palestinian products, including flags, jerseys, T-shirts and keffiyehs. The fridge magnets on sale include one of silhouetted figures on the back of a truck on which a machine gun is mounted with the words Irish Republican Army on the truck’s side.
The company has had a change in fortunes in recent years. It let go its staff in 2018 according to its accounts for that year and said it was dependant on financial support from the party for its continued survival.
Rising costs and “changing consumer tastes” were hitting profitability, the accounts said.
Asked about the donation, a spokesman for Sinn Féin said all of the money received from Republican Merchandising Ltd “were declared in the Six Counties to the Electoral Commission”.
The latest consolidated accounts for Sinn Féin filed with the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) in Dublin show it had total income of €7.9 million in 2024.
The accounts include the income of the party’s operations in Dublin and Belfast, including Republican Merchandising, as well as some other units of the party that qualify for inclusion under new financial reporting rules introduced by Sipo.
The consolidated accounts of Fine Gael show an income of €6.4 million last year, while Fianna Fáil reported income of €6.19 million.
All the parties receive funding from the State, while Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland also receives funding from the UK. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil do not have retail or merchandising operations that feature in their accounts.
The UK Electoral Commission records show Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland recorded several substantial donations in recent years, including €3.46 million from the William Hampton, an Englishman who died in a nursing home in Wales in 2018 and left the bulk of his estate to the party.
The money was declared by Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland in 13 payments between April 2019 and July 2023, said the commission.
In July of this year the party disclosed it had been left £338,550 by the late Elizabeth (Pegeen) O’Sullivan, daughter of the writer, Liam O’Flaherty. In March it was left £16,184 by a Gregory Burke, and in March of last year it was left £37,047 by Michael Dollard.
Mr Dollard, who lived in Kilkenny, and Mr Hampton, left their bequests to Sinn Féin in Dublin, but the money was accepted by Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
There are restrictions in the Republic on political donations from outside the jurisdiction, but these do not apply to Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
The Labour Party complained to Sipo about Sinn Féin’s acceptance of the Hampton bequest but the oversight body did not uphold the complaint.
