Sinn Féin has put up for auction part of a bugging device uncovered at a party office in west Belfast last year.
Listed on the internet auctioneer eBay, the device has a reserve price of $1,025 (€1,000). Sinn Féin has posted a link to the auction on the online store section of its website.
Advertising the sale, the party claims: "This auction is for part of a British MI5 bugging device found hidden in the floorboards of a Sinn Féin office in Belfast in September 2004." It continues: "Included is a handwritten letter of authentication from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. The handwritten letter has been framed, and there is a display board for the device. This is a unique opportunity."
The auction is being run by the Sinn Féin bookshop on behalf of the party, and all money raised will help Sinn Féin "and our campaign for Irish unity and freedom".
The handwritten letter by Gerry Adams reads as follows: "On September 13th, 2004, at a very sensitive time in the peace process, a sophisticated bugging device was found hidden in Sinn Féin offices in Connolly House, Belfast. This was the second device found in Belfast within 10 days. Martin McGuinness and I returned the Connolly House device to the British prime minister Tony Blair during the peace talks in Leeds Castle, England.
"When we were leaving that meeting I held on to a section of that device. Since then I have been in correspondence with various elements of the British system to establish who authorised this electronic surveillance operation. In January 2005 Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, admitted that MI5 bugged Connolly House."
The party stressed last night that the bids were being sought on www.ebay.com and not on the UK website www.ebay.co.uk