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. 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. 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. 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.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
