Sinn Féin shop sees profits treble from sale of republican merchandise

The company behind Sinn Féin’s online store saw its profits more than treble last year as it sold more than €300,000 worth of republican merchandise, according to newly filed accounts.

The Sinn Féin Bookshop has caused controversy in the past by selling clothing, badges, posters and other items emblazoned with IRA slogans and pictures of militants wearing balaclavas.

However, it withdrew most of its IRA-themed merchandise from sale in 2018 after Fine Gael Senator Joe O’Reilly accused the shop of glamorising terrorism and glorifying violence.

The shop is operated by Republican Merchandising Limited, the directors of which include Treasa Quinn, Sinn Féin’s finance manager, and Peter Graves, who managed the shop when it had a premises in Parnell Square, Dublin.

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The company recorded sales of €309,507 last year, representing a 46 per cent increase compared to 2020. Profits more than trebled from €44,527 to €141,894 during the same period.

Its current assets and cash pile also doubled from €102,356 to €231,540 last year, and its accumulated profits increased from €758 to €142,652. It paid €12,780 in tax and owed a total of €86,781 to its creditors.

Items currently for sale on the website include a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Tiocfaidh ár lá”, and a badge showing a silhouette of armed militants in the back of a lorry featuring the Irish flag and the words “Irish Republican Army”.

Limited edition portraits of the late Martin McGuinness by artist Robert Ballagh are for sale on the website for €600. A total of 500 of the signed prints were produced in 2017.

Some of the more controversial items that were removed from sale in 2018 included T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans “Sniper at work”, and “IRA: Undefeated Army”.

The sale of IRA merchandise was previously defended by former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who said in 2003 that there were people who saw the organisation as “freedom fighters, as people who suffered greatly, as people who had members killed on active service”.

“There is memorabilia which, in my view, deals with those who see the IRA in that context. You have to get some sense of proportion about all this,” he said.