Sinn Féin owns nine constituency properties in Northern Ireland and seven in the Republic, as well as three “headquarter” buildings in Dublin and Belfast, a spokesperson for the party has said.
Land registry records show the Sinn Féin constituency properties are held in the names of local party trustees. As with all political parties, Sinn Féin declares head office buildings in the party’s annual accounts, but not the property owned by constituency units. Only one other major party in the Republic – Fine Gael – owns its headquarters building and no other party has a network of constituency offices such as that of Sinn Féin.
The properties in the Republic owned by local party units are: 1 Moyderwell, Cloonalour, Tralee, Co Kerry; 16 Upper John Street, Sligo; 1-2 Crowe Street, Dundalk; 21 Dublin Street, Monaghan; 39 College Street, Townparks, Cavan; 45a Flower Hill, Navan; and Forge Cross, Tralee, Co Kerry.
The Northern Ireland properties are: 291 Antrim Road, Belfast; 147 Andersonstown Road Belfast; 7 Market Street, Enniskillen, Fermanagh; 77 North Street Lurgan, Armagh; 1 Kilmorey Terrace, Newry, Down; 4-5 James Street, Omagh, Tyrone; 1a Melvin Road, Strabane, Tyrone; 60 Irish Street, Dungannon, Tyrone; and 64b Racecourse Road, Derry.
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The local party organisation in Cork city sold 136 Barrack Street last year and is currently seeking a larger property to cater for its needs. A former headquarters property in Belfast, 535 Falls Road, was sold a number of years ago.
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The party owns 44 and 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, and 51 to 53 Falls Road, Belfast, which are declared as “headquarter” properties in the party’s 2021 financial accounts, where they are given a value of €2.14 million. Ownership of 44 Parnell Square goes back to the early 1900s, it is understood.
The party also owns 55 Falls Road, Belfast, the spokesman said. “The building was a terrace prior to redevelopment. The party owns 51 to 55 Falls Road.” The abbreviations “51 to 53″ and “51 to 55″ refer to the same terrace, the spokesman said.
A company called Sevastopol Developments Ltd has its registered offices at 55 Falls Road and at one stage charged Westminster for the use of offices there by Gerry Adams and Paul Maskey as members of parliament representing West Belfast.
In an interview with The Irish Times in 2020, the party’s director of finance, Des Mackin, said Sinn Féin had a substantial number of properties that it owned or leased and that while it did not have a property in every constituency, in Northern Ireland there were constituencies where the party had two or three properties.
“We tried to tidy it up some years ago, but it was too difficult. In Belfast alone we’d have seven [properties], easy. Nationally, I’d say it exceeds 40 or 50, easily.” A spokesman for the party said the reference to 50 properties includes properties leased by Sinn Féin.
Some years ago there was controversy in Northern Ireland over the use by Sinn Féin of properties owned by charities that were being paid rent by the Northern Ireland Assembly because of their use by Sinn Féin MLAs.
One was a property in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, for which rent was being paid to an entity called the Tyrone Cultural Society. Another was a property called Gulladuff Hall, in Co Derry, for which rent was paid to an entity called the South Derry Cultural and Heritage Society. The matter was investigated at the time by a cross-party group in the Assembly, which decided that the rental payments were admissible expenditure.
The offices in Coalisland and Gulladuff are not owned by Sinn Féin, but are office spaces rented by Sinn Féin representatives in the performance of their roles as public representatives, the party spokesperson said. He did not respond to a query about a constituency centre in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
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In 2017 Sinn Féin TDs Pearse Doherty and Padraig Mac Lochlainn opened the Bobby Sands/Eddie Fullerton Republican Centre on High Road, Letterkenny, which is owned by a company called Donegal Office Services Ltd and is used by Sinn Féin for constituency purposes.
The company bought the building from receivers in 2016 without taking out a mortgage. At the official opening the following year, Mr Doherty said he wanted to thank the “dreamers” who had fundraised at home and abroad to finance the centre.
Donegal Offices Services was incorporated in November 2015 and has its registered offices at the Letterkenny centre. In its most recent financial accounts its said its turnover comes from rental income and that its investment property, valued at €250,000, is not for sale in the normal course of business.
