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THE ANNUAL FRIENDS of Sinn Féin (FOSF) fundraising dinner is taking place in New York later with guests to be treated to free cocktails, steak and a keynote speech from Gerry Adams.
The event is expected to attract a crowd of over 600 people who will pay $500 (or around €460) each for the pleasure of an evening in the company of the Sinn Féin leader and his deputy Mary Lou McDonald, who will also address attendees at the Sheraton Hotel in New York’s Times Square.
The event begins at 6pm with free cocktails and hors d’oeuvres served to guests who will also be able to avail of an open bar as they arrive at the four-star hotel situated in midtown Manhattan.
The main meal will be served at around 7pm where guests will dine on a Mediterranean salad to start.
The main course is a grilled filet mignon, which will be served with manchego cheese (it’s a cheese made in Spain from the milk of the manchega breed of sheep) and asparagus.
Dessert is a selection of miniature pastries and cookies with Adams due to deliver his keynote address after the meal.
One of the organisers from Friends of Sinn Féin told TheJournal.ie this afternoon that there are still tickets available and that they can “always squeeze a few people in at the end”.
As it did last year, Labour has criticised the event with Dublin South Central TD Eric Byrne saying it’s “extraordinary” that Adams and McDonald are in New York when the Dáil is debating legislation which gives effect to the Budget measures announced last month.
I read with interest that the duo are thousands of miles away in Manhattan, raising money for Sinn Fein at a gold-plated, $500-a-head dinner for American high-rollers.
It seems that this week, rubbing shoulders with super-wealthy Americans takes priority over representing the ordinary people of Louth and Dublin Central in our national parliament during the budget debate.
Byrne added that the food being served this evening is “a fine meal for a man [Adams] who says he lives on the average industrial wage”.
Organisers are expected to raise around $350,000 from the event although a party spokesperson said they could not say in advance how much money will be raised.
A well-placed Sinn Féin source has previously said the “vast majority” of the money raised stays in the US, telling TheJournal.ie:
It pays for the lobbying operation and pays for people to go and lobby. It’s not money coming back into the party.
The party also maintains that FOSF is “fully transparent and compliant with US law”. Earlier this week, a spokesperson confirmed that Adams’ and McDonald’s flights are being paid for by FOSF – and they’re travelling economy class.
Byrne said it would be helpful if the party outlined what mechanisms are in place to ensure the money is not being channelled into Sinn Féín political activity in Ireland.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil both recently held their own fundraising dinners in Dublin. Both parties put on annual presidential dinners with the proceeds – unlike in Sinn Féin’s case – going directly towards funding political activity in this country.
jail time should be immposed on people who treat living animals this way. normally they are fined and banned from having animals which is like a slap on the wrist.
Absolutely Jail Time.
I vote for kick the head off them time too.
Removal of state welfare and benefits would be no harm either
Our justice system doesn’t only let us down.
Ask ur TD for Regulation and Enforcement. Election coming…. (makes my blood boil this)
I rescued a kitty dumped in a bog (longford)-completly emaciated. Tried to save her but had to take her to the vet and put to sleep as he did tests and she had an incurable virus having been exposed to the elements dumped in a bog. Can the Govt please put in place a US Style ANIMAL POLICE now!! Or we’ll be reading about this again..and again.
Wasn’t me boss !!
Boss?…….pikeman, it was more likely some tracksuit wearing dossing scrote from Ballyfermot.
Decent folk from Ballyfermot Al Ca !! ok Boss
Because no Wexford PikeyMen have ever mistreated an animal as such!
Disgraceful. How can any human do this to an animal
It’s their “culture”. Along with general lawlessness, intimidation and entitlements, to name a few.
so your point is Ned Shaw, is you believe them to be travellers
Greyhounds have their ears tattooed and are regularly found with there ears hacked off and two horse were found last week with there legs bound by ratchet straps they had been disembowelled and had had their necks skinned in an attempt to remove the now legally required microchips!! And while travellers aren’t responsible for all animal abuse in ireland you just have to look at all the pieballed ponies and lurcher type dogs found in disgraceful conditions in every rescuce,pound and shelter up snd down the country to see that yet again the traveller community is responsible for more than their fair share and again they are not being held accountable nor are they making any attempt to change their behaviour!!
The missus and I rescued a lurcher saluki last year. The rescue centre told us the dog had broken its leg and was left on the haulting site to die as she couldnt move. No food or water anywhere to be seen. The rescue centre took the dog and paid to repair the broken bone. The work these centres do is amazing across the country. The dog is now happy and healthy and enjoys watching tv with me every evening.
Absolute disgusting Fû(ktards the lowest of low Clunt ever.
It’s like bandit country in parts of West Dublin these days. You’ll see young lads flying up and down footpaths on scramblers.. You’ll also see young lads on horses and pony’s on the roads, on green spaces and around the canal and not a thing is being done about it.. It goes to show what cutbacks in policing have done to the local community
Nothing has EVER been done about cream crackers in these areas. Wouldn’t happen in D4 though.
Drive by Donnybrook when the Wesley disco is on, you’ll see four or five guards walking around the general area making sure there’s no messing going on. Meanwhile there’s Garda Stations closing down in other parts of the Country because we don’t have enough Guards..
Exactly!
Just like with cattle there should be a tagging scheme that each horse when born (like cattle) gets tagged within a couple of days of birth this should then be filled onto a animal register. When registered the vet should then come and chip the horse see that the register is filled in properly with just like the bovine side of things including movement of the animals this should be documented legitimately to adhere with standards that D.A.F.F should enforce.!?
All horses and ponies by law must be chipped and have a passport . I would bet that this pony has neither .
Has this something to do with our culture, boss?
Piebalds!
Every person who owns a horse and particularly uses it on the public road should have it chipped and have current insurance, otherwise it get seized just like a car!…its reasonably easy,
Animals left in public parks should removed and sold. If people can’t afford to look after them, they shouldn’t be allowed keep them. If a child Kherson hurt by an animal in public parks who’s responsible.
It should be illegal to have a horse in an urban area, full stop. Although, if they just enforced the existing regulations on chipping and passports for horses, I’m sure they could easily seize most of the horses kept in halting sites
Tesco will take them all day long…
At least it’s a better fate than to be left starving in a ditch
When is this government going to crack down on idiots buying horses , then not able look after them , only registered stable owners and horse trainers should be allowed buy horses
Presumably it was a couple of these little b******s who left the poor animal to die, you know the ones who gallop through the streets and no one gives a damn!
Yes Craig , I call them knackers , socks pulled up over tracksuit bottom , vermin of our society
Absolutely heartbreaking story, when will this cruelty stop?
Pity the person who saw the pony being walked down the canal hadn’t the awareness to take a photo of the perpetrator of this crime.
As if that would make any difference. Which ireland do you inhabit?
It’s not that secluded, it was right along the canal. There was a concerned guy on the phone as we walked across the way from it. Poor animal.
In order to own cattle you must prove you have a proper premises before you can get a herd number to purchase an animal. You must notify every time the animal leaves the premises and tag any animal born on that premises. If you sell an animal you must notify the sale and provide the name address and herd number of the new owner. This is inspected and enforced by the Dept of Ag. If you are found in breech of these regulations heavy penalties apply. Why is this not applied to the equine and canine industries??
Lousy bast@rds should get 6 months in the slammer for this, minimum
Until the authorities get brave and ‘go in’ and round up these ‘horse lovers’ and ban them from ownership it will never get sorted. Food, shelter, secure grazing (that YOU own), and regular observation is essential.
Ownership need not be essential, but the rest yes, I agree. It is already a requirement to register land where equines are kept.
Animal cruelty unfortunately is never seen as an election issue. It is members of all communities who mistreat animals. Tougher sentencing and very heavy fines are needed.
Dislike my comment if you like but anyone who does such an evil act like this needs to die. They have no place on this earth wasting precious oxygen. If I got a pardon for doing it myself I certainly would in a heartbeat. I’d have no regrets that subhumans capable of such an act is no longer breathing.
I hope they get hit by a bus and die in agony. Absolute lowlifes. Serial killers in the making.
Animals are better than most people.
As long as we are happy to let scobies have horses in housing estates because … sure it gives them something to do … then this is what we will continue to see.
People who can’t look after animals should never own an animal again.
Our animal welfare laws are shameful to say the least. A cruelty story every single day to the point we will become desensitised to this suffering. I just couldn’t be around someone who’d harm an animal. It’s the lowest of the low. We should be ashamed.
Hedge hoppers at their finest as usual.. but sure it’s their culture so we can’t say anything can we?
This just makes me really sad
T.ramps
I cannot understand this, a horse will eat an acre of grass or, it will eat a half acre of grass (as my Daddí say’s) and there’s plenty of grass along the canal so, maybe there’s something else wrong with the pony.
Hope it recovers well, just came from feeding my own.
It wouldn’t have been kept on grass, probably a tiny muddy enclosure and left to starve, until on the point of death they walked/dragged the pony along the canal to dump it where it wouldn’t be traced back to them.
This time of the year the grass doesn’t provide nourishment and additional food is required, would of thought someone who has their own horses would know this
Hi Carmel, take a dander along the canal, there’s plenty of grass around Labre Park, probably where the gaunch who owns this wee pony hails from but, as above, I suspect there’s more to this.
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