{"id":558945,"date":"2026-07-20T11:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558945\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T11:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:58:13","slug":"communist-party-reports-rent-books-and-merchandise-income-of-more-than-e217000-last-year-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558945\/","title":{"rendered":"Communist Party reports rent, books and merchandise income of more than \u20ac217,000 last year \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI)<\/a>, based in Temple Bar<\/a>, Dublin, generated \u20ac217,967 last year from rental income and book and merchandise sales, according to accounts filed with the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The figure is a slight increase on the \u20ac208,767 declared in 2024. The accounts do not disclose how much of the income arose from rent and how much from sales. <\/p>\n

The 2025 accounts, published recently, show the party\u2019s total income for the year was \u20ac227,118, indicating the bulk of the party\u2019s financing came from rental income and book and merchandise sales. <\/p>\n

The party\u2019s retail operation, Connolly Books, has an outlet in the party\u2019s premises on East Essex Street and also sells books and merchandising online.<\/p>\n

Items for sale online include books on history and politics, badges such as the Easter lily, pro-Palestine messages and Vladimir Lenin, posters including one of Stalin, clothing with political messaging, and flags. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in declares ownership of six new properties in latest set of annual accountsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The flags, which sell for \u20ac15, include those of Venezuela, China, Cuba and Ireland, as well as Progress Pride flags, Palestinian flags, Starry Plough flags and a Dublin Hill 16 flag carrying pictures of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation.<\/p>\n

Anarchist flags as well as flags for the USSR, Antifa (anti-fascist) and the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (North Korea) are marked as out-of-stock on the party website. <\/p>\n

New rules on political parties\u2019 financial accounts mean that since 2024 more information is now disclosed. <\/p>\n

The CPI, which does not have any elected politicians, owns part of 43 East Essex Street, where it has a bookshop, office space and a theatre. The rest of the building comprises six privately owned apartments. <\/p>\n

The party\u2019s property is valued at \u20ac1.4 million in the 2025 accounts, the same value given in 2024.<\/p>\n

Membership fees and subscriptions brought in \u20ac9,151 in 2025, compared with \u20ac13,057 the previous year, according to the CPI accounts.<\/p>\n

Total expenditure in 2025 \u2013 including operating costs for Connolly Books of \u20ac135,415 \u2013 was \u20ac208,443, leaving the party with an operating surplus for the year of \u20ac18,675. <\/p>\n

At year\u2019s end the party had a cash balance of \u20ac207,961, compared with \u20ac176,744 at the end of the previous year.<\/p>\n

CPI and Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> are unique among Irish parties in terms of the income they generate from merchandise sales, according to the 2025 annual accounts for political parties published by Sipo.<\/p>\n

Both sell books, clothing, badges and other items with republican, pro-Palestinian and other messaging. <\/p>\n

The range of flags sold by Sinn F\u00e9in is more limited than is the case with CPI, with the only exception to republican\/Irish flags being the Palestinian flag, the Catalan flag, and a Celtic Nations flag. Most of the flags being sold by Sinn F\u00e9in cost \u20ac10 or \u20ac12, although a handmade tricolour \u201cburial flag\u201d costs \u20ac90.<\/p>\n

As previously reported, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s accounts for 2025 show it sold merchandising worth \u20ac405,612 last year, a substantial increase on the \u20ac271,222 recorded for 2024. <\/p>\n

The party has retail outlets in Dublin and Belfast as well as an online book and merchandising operation.<\/p>\n

CPI is the third wealthiest Irish party in terms of property, the accounts show. Sinn F\u00e9in had property worth \u20ac3.7 million, Fine Gael had property worth \u20ac2.6 million, CPI had property worth \u20ac1.4 million, and the Labour Party had property worth \u20ac753,269, at the end of 2025, according to their respective accounts. Fianna F\u00e1il had property worth \u20ac170,000, being 75 Church Street, Cavan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), based in Temple Bar, Dublin, generated \u20ac217,967 last year from rental income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[179381,61,60,43,3415,38702],"class_list":["post-558945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-communist-party-of-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-sinn-fein","tag-temple-bar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}