THE profits from the duty free shops of an Irish American businessman have been funding Irish universities and charities as well as Sinn Fein's US organisation.
The huge scale of donations in Ireland, the US and around the world by the reclusive Mr Charles "Chuck" Feeney has been revealed for the first time in a front page report by the New York Times. It is estimated that he has given away more than $600 million over the past 15 years, mainly anonymously, to hospitals, universities and other needy bodies.
Dublin City University, Trinity College and the University of Limerick are listed as receiving "more than $10 million" each from Mr Feeney's Atlantic foundations. University College, Cork has received "between $1 million and $10 million" as have, the University of Ulster and Co operation North, Northern Ireland.
Irish bodies which have received less than $1 million are the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust the Linenhall Library, Belfast; the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Limerick Community Based Education Initiative.
In 1984, Mr Feeney secretly gave his 39 per cent share of the Duty Free Shoppers group to the two foundations which make the donations. This share is estimated to be worth $1 billion following the recent sale of the company to Monet and Chandon Champagne. The combined assets available for further donations are about $3 billion.
Mr Feeney agreed to disclose some details of his donations because a pending lawsuit over the sale of the company would have revealed them. Long regarded by business magazines as one of the wealthiest men in the US, Mr Feeney may have personal wealth of less than $5 million as a result of his philanthropy.
He has been a member of the unofficial group of Irish Americans who helped pave the way for the IRA ceasefire in September 1994. Over the past two years he has funded the Sinn Fein office in Washington - from personal resources, not from the foundations, which are not allowed to give to political organisations.
He says his gifts to Sinn Fein have been carefully monitored to ensure that it supports only nonviolent activities. He has continued to support the Washington office, because he is "hopeful" that the IRA ceasefire will be renewed.
Asked why he had given away so much of his wealth, Mr Feeney said: "I simply decided I had enough money. It doesn't drive my life. I'm a what you see is what you get kind of guy."