I’m just pinning these videos from the Sinn Fein end of Mandy McAuley’s two part Spotlight, with minimal comment in part because I haven’t worked out what to think on the matter, and because I want to hear what you guys think. It’s worth doing so just to isolate the scale of that end of the problem.
Firstly, there’s a wholly owned private company Research Services Ireland (£700k):
Secondly a party bill for secretarial work of £3.7m:
Then there are those charitable bodies which seem to own an awful lot of property (Gulladuff in particular is an expensive new build), and whose books appear not to be regulated in open or transparent sort of way.
Questions arising:
- How was/is income/expenses from Westminster, Dublin and Brussels handled?
- And what’s the ownership arrangements around other SF property/offices in Northern Ireland, or even the Republic?
- Is there a case for looking again at the ownership arrangements around those two properties in London which aroused suspicion?
Part I
Part II
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
