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Steak and Gerry: Inside Sinn Féin's hugely successful New York fundraiser

The 20th annual Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser was the organisation’s best yet.

OVER $400,000 WAS raised at the annual Friends of Sinn Féin (FOSF) fundraising dinner in New York last night with guests treated to cocktails, traditional Irish music, steak and a keynote speech from  Gerry Adams.

The Sinn Féin president was in the Big Apple along with deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald for the 20th annual dinner which cost $500 a head (or €460) and attracted around 680 people to the Sheraton Hotel in Times Square.

As guests arrived for the cocktail hour in the Metropolitan West Ballroom, traditional Irish musicians played songs including The Town that I Loved so Well, Grace and Whiskey in the Jar.

FT5S-Friends-of-Sinn-Fein-Musicians Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com / IrishCentral.com

As we revealed last night, guests dined on a meal of Mediterranean salad to start, with grilled filet mignon for mains and pastries and cookies for dessert.

FT5S-Friends-of-Sinn-Fein-Dinner-Table The meal at the FOSF dinner Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com / IrishCentral.com

IrishCentral.com reports that one of FOSF’s founding members Fay Devlin, a Manhattan-based construction company boss, said it was the most successful fundraising dinner in the organisation’s two-decade history, with almost 100 tables sold.

US-based trade unions and construction companies with Irish links were the main benefactors on the night, the New York-based website’s Frances Mulraney reports.

Sinn Féin has said the money raised goes towards funding FOSF’s activities in the States such as political lobbying and travel. The organisation paid for Adams’ and McDonald’s economy class flights to the US this week.

FT5S-Friends-of-Sinn-Fein-Stage Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com Frances Mulraney / IrishCentral.com / IrishCentral.com

At the beginning of his keynote speech, Adams addressed the controversy at home over the fact that he and McDonald are missing key Dáil debates on the Social Welfare and Finance bills.

“Mary Lou and I are coming back. We will see you in the Dáil and we will hold you to account for all of the things that you haven’t done, despite all of your promises in the last election to do,” he told attendees.

The Irish Times’ US correspondent Simon Carswell reported that this remark drew a loud applause from the audience.

As we reported earlier, Adams also spoke at length about the “contrived” political crisis in the North and of the fear Sinn Féin is instilling in its political opponents.

Read: Here’s what’s on the menu for Sinn Féin’s €500-a-plate NY fundraiser

Gerry Adams: Our opponents fear us

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134 Comments
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    Mute Bob Freeman
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:55 PM

    Maybe they saw some lad prancing around taking photos and wanted nothing to do with it!

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    Mute Marg murphy
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:54 PM

    Looks staged to me.

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    Mute Paudi Onail
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 4:01 PM

    course its staged, nothing great about it. same for these ‘amazing’ landscape photos doctored in editing programs. the world is full of them, the sheep know no better.

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    Mute Nazalia
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:58 PM

    Two guys from RTE hiding under a blanket?

    105
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    Mute Jon Coll
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:01 PM

    Here’s how dublin photographer ends his career by having work published on journal

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    Mute Richard F
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:33 PM

    That’s miriam o callaghan and marty whelan under that blanket

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    Mute James McCartney
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:51 PM

    You can’t see their eyes.

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    Mute Ciarán O'Sullivan
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 5:04 PM

    A more appropriate title might be: “Europe continues to hide under the blanket long after we needed to stand as a people”

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:56 PM

    #sadnessunderablankett. Kay Burley can use that if she wants.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:00 PM

    Brussels was on high alert because of an expected attack, yet 3 guys can walk freely into an airport loaded with bombs!! Security forces have something to answer to here.

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    Mute Jack Alexander
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:04 PM

    True.

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    Mute Dermot Byrne
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 4:58 PM

    Don’t be ridiculous, I live in Belgium and use Zanvantem regularly. There are thousands of people walking into the departures hall every hour with big bags how are you supposed to identify what is in each bag. If you move security further out to entrance or somewhere else there will be queues there to target. It’s an impossible job for the security services, I believe they stop a lot of incidences that we never even get to hear about but they can’t it right 100% of the time.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 5:26 PM

    I always enter the Airport with my luggage…….is there another way?

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    Mute Noel Falkhall
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:20 PM

    I wouldn’t be sittin’ under a window, drink or no drink.

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    Mute Colm Garvey
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:22 PM

    A pair of auld boys on the sauce all day

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    Mute Fran Heavey
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:49 PM

    Wouldve been a better photo without the blanket

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    Mute jerry curtin
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:48 PM

    A big bag of the white stuff. Grief my eye

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 2:49 PM

    #sadnessintheireyes.

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    Mute Jim Woodcock
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 5:58 PM

    Ah jaysus was afraid of this… right it was me and a munter I met down the local. Don’t know why the author says it was in Belgium as well, was only in the market bar in Dublin. I knew she was bad but to describe her as a man? Ah come on. The blanket came in handy tho for an aul danger tug.

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    Mute mike murphy
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:33 PM

    Maybe Angela Merkel thought they were at work

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    Mute Brian
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 8:01 PM

    It’s doent take long for so called artists and photographers to start loading these kinds of pictures on social media. Can people just let others grieve and Mourn without trying to further their own reputation

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    Mute John Brendan Mullen
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 3:01 PM

    Maybe they are defying the attackers by continuing with their daily routine despite the fear. I would guess the blanket is intended to give themselves a false sense of security against possible flying glass in case of another explosion

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    Mute Apu Mohammed
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    Mar 23rd 2016, 5:22 PM

    1, 2, 3….

    Peep !

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    Mute Olar Perez
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