Martin McGuinness has been heating things up away from the presidential race after a round tower he built from matchsticks while in prison far exceeded its estimate at auction.
The gold-painted tower, presented to the late Derry priest Fr. Jimmy Shiels, was made in 1974 after McGuinness was convicted of being a member of the IRA in February of that year and imprisoned in Portlaoise jail.
A New Jersey collector snapped up the tower for €5,200 in an over the phone bid to Whyte's Auctioneers in Dublin on Saturday. It had been estimated to fetch up to €1,500.
A collection of press photographs dating from 1980 to 1994 of INLA leader Dominic "Mad Dog" McGlinchey, including a picture of the scene where he was shot dead in a phone box, was also a hotly-contested lot.
It sold for €4,000 to a major collector of photographs who had flown over from Britain for the auction.
