Crucial Irish-American support for Sinn FΘin's peace process strategy is holding firm, according to the party's president, Mr Gerry Adams.
Speaking to reporters in Manhattan yesterday, Mr Adams said there had been no decrease in support for the party in the US following the move by the IRA to begin weapons decommissioning.
Mr Adams pointed to last night's fund-raising dinner at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown as an indicator of continued Irish-American financial support for Sinn FΘin.
About 1,000 people packed the event, which was hosted by Friends of Sinn FΘin, the party's US fund-raising arm.
Tickets were $500 each and the gross total raised is likely to exceed half-a-million dollars.
However, unlike previous Sinn FΘin fund-raising events in the city, the money raised last night will not be used to support Sinn FΘin's political activities in Ireland. Instead, it is being donated by the party to the disaster fund set up by the New York construction industry in the aftermath of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre. Mr Adams yesterday denounced the attacks as an "atrocity".