There’s only one reason Trump went to Ireland – it wasn’t to meet the Taoiseach

Trump claimed there were no protests, but in Dublin city centre, there were thousands protesting against his arrival. One of these was Charles from Cork. While Trump was being received at Áras an Uachtaráin with the full courtesy of the Irish state, the 76 year-old protester was driving up to Dublin. Three days out of another round of chemotherapy, he could not miss the chance to protest against Trump. 

“I mean, we have to speak out against Trump,” said Charles, who called him a “warmonger” and perhaps “the greatest threat to world peace… I just had to go to just be part of it.” 

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At just before 1pm there were thumping drums and Irish folk ballads playing, as a lone counter-protestor with a red MAGA hat waved an American flag as he spoke to his live stream in a thick Dublin accent. An American tourist shouted “We love Trump!” from an open-top bus. 

Sylvia Jones, with a face full of fake tan and wearing a baby’s nappy fastened by safety pins and a messy blond wig told me, “Oh, well, any resemblance between me and the visiting turd from the United States is completely, purely coincidental.”

”He’s the most abominable human being that I’ve ever seen anywhere in any country or in public office.” While old age pensioners carried Palestinian flags, others with “Release the Trumpstein files,” or a group of young people carrying balloons of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netenyahu performing lewd acts on the American President, it was a colourful but creative gathering of Ireland’s left. 

It was not only a civil gathering. The Labour MEP, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said, “He is an enemy of the European Union. He’s launched a trade war against the European Union.” “His administration is supporting far right elements in different member states, and he’s even threatened the sovereignty of one of the member states, in terms of Greenland.”

Back inside the Áras, president Connolly – constitutionally required to receive Trump with the full courtesy of her office – gifted him the cross of St Brigid, a symbol of peace and protection. She also handed him a collection of poems that included the sonnet “Ceasefire”, by the Northern Irish poet Michael Longley. 

After this formality it was time for Trump’s real reason to visit Ireland – the golf. At his course in Doonbeg, he was received with open arms by the attendees. Cheered into the members’ bar at the golf club, it was everything that Trump could have ever dreamt of: the reception only a monarch could expect. 

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“Four more years,” rang out and after Trump had left the room, his son Eric turned back with a single pumping fist to the baying crowd. It was a very different reception to the one he had received earlier.

Trump for one, will see the trip as a success. The crowd cheered the President onto the 18th Green with chants of “USA! USA! USA!” echoing across his resort. 

And then came the entire point of the trip – the moment when he presented the trophy to the eventual winner of the Irish Open, which happened to be Ireland’s own Shane Lowry, a fact that made the crowd ecstatic. 

So which was the real Irish reaction? Well, the polls showed that 69% of the Irish public did not support this trip. He is, by most measures, the most widely despised American president Europe has ever seen. Distilleries across Ireland may hold a more positive opinion after Trump’s abrupt announcement that he was dropping the self-imposed tariffs on Irish whiskey. 

Charles, who rolled up his sleeve to show the cannula still in his forearm before he went back to Cork for more treatment, offered a blunt assessment. “He’s not welcome in Ireland, end of story. ”