The Friends of Sinn Fein advertisement that was published in the New York Times on March 12/Friends of Sinn Féin

Friends of Sinn Féin ran an advertisement in the New York Times this week urging Irish America to speak out regarding voting rights for Irish citizens abroad and preparation for Irish Unity.

"The new Irish Government has dropped its long standing promise to permit the diaspora to vote in the Irish Presidential elections," the advert, which ran on page A7 of the New York Times on Wednesday, March 12, says.

“Irish America believes that the Irish Government has a constitutional obligation to plan for the unity referendums promised in the Good Friday Agreement. It is failing to meet that obligation.

"Irish Governmnet ministers will travel across America for St. Patrick's Day.

"Are they listening?

"It is time to respect the rights of all Irish Citizens to elect the Irish President. It is time the Irish Government planned and prepared for Unity.

"This St. Patrick's Day, let the Irish Government know it's time to commit to building a new and United Ireland."

Friends of Sinn Féin is registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. 

A Sinn Fein spokesperson told IrishCentral on Friday: "This initiative from an important voice of Irish America is welcomed."

The Friends of Sinn Fein ad that ran in the New York Times on March 12.

In a social media blast announcing its New York Times ad, Friends of Sinn Féin said: "When you see Irish Government Reps at your celebrations & parades this week, let them know: It's time to commit to building a new and united Ireland!"

The New York Times advertisement ran the same day that Taoiseach Micheál Martin attended high-level engagements in Washington, DC, including a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. 

The Taoiseach was one of nine representatives from the Irish Government traveling across the US to mark St. Patrick's Day this week.

March 12, 2025: US President Donald Trump receives the traditional bowl of shamrock from Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the White House. (Merrion Street)

Sinn Féin boycotted this year's annual engagements in Washington DC, but the party's Vice President Michelle O'Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, was elsewhere in the US this week.

Ahead of this week's advertisement in the New York Times, Friends of Sinn Féin published an Irish American activist and community organizer's "strategy to press Irish Government officials on unification." The strategy, aimed at Irish America, includes public engagement at events, engagement with US elected officials, media and public pressure, and mobilizing the Irish Diaspora.

While Friends of Sinn Féin has previously run pre-St. Patrick's Day ads in US publications, this year's ad responds to Ireland's newest Programme for Government. 

The programme, Friends of Sinn Féin noted, drops ambitions to deliver voting rights for Irish citizens abroad and takes a noticeably weaker stance on preparing for Irish Unity.

Indeed, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the former head of Fine Gael, noted in an op-ed for The Times in January: "Rather than unification as a commitment or objective there is a reference only to 'unity of the Irish people.' There is no forum on reconciliation nor on what the future constitutional arrangements of a new Ireland might look like. It’s likely that the impetus to work towards and plan for unification will have to come from outside Leinster House."