Donald Trump attended Sinn Féin fundraiser months before IRA attacked London

During his speech, Gerry Adams joked about Sinn Féin playing the 'Trump card'

Samuel Osborne
Thursday 10 December 2015 09:33 GMT
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Gerry Adams shakes Donald Trump's hand at a Sinn Féin fundraiser at the Essex House hotel in Manhattan, 1995
Gerry Adams shakes Donald Trump's hand at a Sinn Féin fundraiser at the Essex House hotel in Manhattan, 1995

Donald Trump has been caught in another controversy after footage emerged of him attending a Sinn Féin fundraising dinner in New York in November 1995.

The Republican frontrunner can be seen shaking hands with Gerry Adams in the Essex House hotel in Manhattan, months before the Provisional IRA broke its ceasefire by bombing London's Canary Wharf.

During his speech, Gerry Adams jokes about Sinn Féin playing the "Trump card" before shaking hands with the businessman, who can be seen grinning and waving to the audience.

Along with paying the $200 (£131) entry fee to hear Mr Adams speak about the Irish peace process, guests were asked to give donations to Friends of Sinn Féin, The Guardian reports.

Less than four months later, the Provisional IRA detonated a truck bomb in London's Docklands on 9 February 1996, killing two men working in a nearby newsagents and causing £100m in damages.

Sinn Féin and the IRA were the political and military wings of the Irish republican movement for decades.

To enter the event, Mr Trump would have had to walk past protests from the relatives of Catholics who had been shot, beaten and exiled by the IRA after the organisation declared its first ceasefire on 31 August, 1994.

The Presidential hopeful has recently been mired by controversy, standing by his call for a complete ban on Muslim immigration to the US, saying: "We have to do the right thing."

A petition to refuse Mr Trump entry to the UK passed 200,000 signatures in less than 24 hours, meaning the issue will be considered for debate in parliament.

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