*Sinn Féin members at a protest in Ennis.
A CENTRALSIED approach from headquarters has been cited by senior Sinn Féin officials in Clare on their decision to use Belfast companies for the printing of election literature for candidates in the county.
Ennis based RealPrint and D2 Print were the printers of choice for the majority of the 59 candidates in Clare when finalising their literature for the 2024 local elections with Sinn Féin bucking the trend of choosing businesses from the Banner County.
Belfast based McGowans Print were used by Sinn Féin for the election posters of Donna McGettigan TD (SF), Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF), Cllr James Ryan (SF), Dawn Bennett (SF), Martina Cleary (SF) and Conor O’Sullivan. The average fee here was €230.26 for forty five posters.
Leaflets were printed by Alliance Print Solutions located in Galway. A batch of 5000 working out at €328.58.
Director of Elections for Sinn Féin in Clare, Finbarr MacGabhann who is also the party’s Cuige chair told The Clare Echo, “generally we centralise them, we send all our designs off to head office and they order them in bulk. Sinn Féin centralise as much as possible in order to get a discount for ordering in bulk. A lot of the ordering is done centrally”.
Cllr Rachel Haritgan (FF) also went out of the county but for the purpose of acquiring headshots.
