Ireland aims to avoid the rough with golf-mad Trump

DUBLIN — Ireland is girding itself to offer U.S. President Donald Trump the country’s legendary “hundred thousand welcomes” — and, privately, cannot wait for him to leave.

The official Irish priorities ahead of Trump’s arrival Saturday are to keep protesters out of sight and keep the president’s focus on the Irish Open golf tournament being played at his resort on the west coast.

“He invited himself to Ireland to see the golf. That’s grand. We need to get him through Dublin as smoothly and trouble-free as possible. Smiling faces, nice pictures, no friction,” a senior Irish government official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes preparations for a trip that has been on Ireland’s radar since St. Patrick’s Day nearly six months ago. When Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the White House, he agreed with Trump that he probably should visit his County Clare resort in remote Doonbeg this weekend as it hosts the country’s premier golf tournament.

Once Trump’s Qatari-donated Air Force One lands at Dublin Airport, he’s expected to be flown by Marine One helicopter into Phoenix Park, a vast urban oasis that was once the hunting grounds for the British ruling elite — and today provides an ideal one-stop shop for diplomacy behind easily secured walls.

Confining Trump to the Phoenix Park has meant shutting down one of the biggest urban parks in Europe, including one of Dublin’s top tourist attractions, the zoo, since Thursday night.

But it also sidestepped the U.S. government’s initial wish to have the center of Dublin shut down so Trump could visit the future site of a new American embassy. That had been the hope of Trump’s ambassador to Ireland, a New Jersey property developer and avid golfer named Edward Walsh.

“A groundbreaking ceremony in the middle of the capital would have been a security and logistical nightmare,” the Irish official said.

It’s still going to take an estimated 4,000 security personnel — including a reported 1,000 U.S. Secret Service agents and other American security staff operating anti-drone weaponry — to keep protesters and any would-be assassins out of range when Trump meets Irish leaders in Phoenix Park before flying across to Doonbeg.

Dan Mulhall, who was Ireland’s ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s first term, said the decision to award the Irish Open to Trump’s resort made this weekend’s tricky diplomacy inevitable. “There will be relief in [the Irish] government when it’s over,” he said. “I am sure they don’t fancy the visit but it has to be done.”

Ever since Trump’s return to power, the Irish government’s key objective has been to limit any attacks on the exceptional role that U.S. drug and tech companies play in fueling Ireland’s EU-leading economy.

“We depend on the U.S. for so much, there’s no getting away from that critical fact. We do offer a lot in return, and we’ll be keen to reinforce that point. So naturally, while he’s here, President Trump will be guaranteed the full céad míle fáilte,” the Irish official said, using a native phrase proclaiming “a hundred thousand welcomes.”

Phoenix Park is home to three of the grandest venues for Irish diplomacy: Farmleigh House, a former retreat for the Guinness brewing dynasty and the state’s official guesthouse for visiting dignitaries; U.S. Ambassador Walsh’s Deerfield residence; and Áras an Uachtaráin, the home of Ireland’s ceremonial head of state, President Catherine Connolly. Trump will visit Walsh first, then Connolly at her place, and finally Martin at Farmleigh.

Irish confidence is running high that the ultra-polite Martin can swerve any awkward moments, given how he emerged unscathed from two St. Patrick’s Day visits to the White House. But nails are being bitten over Trump’s encounter with Connolly, a socialist opposition politician who often denounced Trump before her election last year as head of state, a non-government role designed to articulate Irish values, not policy.

Connolly, an ardent supporter of the Palestinian people, personally protested Trump’s first presidential visit to Ireland in 2019. Before her presidential win, Connolly was an early and frequent critic of Trump, once declaring: “I have difficulty calling him ‘President Trump’.”

For his part, Trump incorrectly presumed, during his only public comments about Connolly, that she was a man.

For their first face-to-face meeting, Connolly’s team is strictly limiting who can attend the official handshake and greeting inside the Áras. Unlike previous U.S. presidential visits, Trump isn’t expected to join the Irish president in ringing a symbolic peace bell outside.

Likewise, whereas previous U.S. presidents have addressed the joint houses of Ireland’s parliament, an honor most recently bestowed on Biden in 2023, the building will remain closed for Trump’s visit.

“We have the convenient excuse that it’s a weekend,” said the Irish official, who conceded that the parliament has observed exceptional recalls from holiday periods to celebrate Biden and other visiting U.S. presidents. “We never got the impression that this was something President Trump was particularly keen to do anyway.”

Thousands of left-wing protesters, including senior figures from the main opposition party, Sinn Féin, are expected to march through central Dublin while Trump stays in the park. Anti-Trump protesters plan similar demonstrations Sunday in rural County Clare on the final day of the Irish Open, where the national police force and U.S. Secret Service have spent weeks wargaming how best to keep them far from the fairways.

Within the security cordon, Trump seems assured of a warm welcome from Doonbeg’s economically minded locals. They express uniform admiration for a U.S. leader who snapped up the bankrupt local resort at a knock-down price in 2014 and, spearheaded by son Eric, has transformed it into the area’s top employer and a highly profitable venture.

Similarly, the golfing elite — led by defending Irish Open champion Rory McIlroy — say they see only good coming from a chance to share a spotlight with Trump.

“We are all happy to be here, grateful to be here, and his [Trump’s] presence at the Irish Open makes it a truly international event,” McIlroy told a Doonbeg press conference. “That brings more attention and eyeballs, and that can only be a good thing.”