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Ken O’Flynn ‘an interesting character’. File picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\nAn \u201cIrish Trump\u201d could emerge from the ranks of Independent Ireland, according to former financial advisor Eddie Hobbs, who convened a conference for people on the “populist right” of politics.<\/p>\n
Mr Hobbs, who organised the inaugural Irl Forum last weekend, told the Irish Examiner there is potential for an \u201cIrish Trump\u201d in the ranks of the Independent Ireland party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve Bannon, who was one of the main architects of Donald Trump\u2019s MAGA movement, said last month that he was working on the \u201cIrish situation\u201d and there would soon be an \u201cIrish Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is potential for one but it would have to be developed,” Mr Hobbs said.<\/p>\n
When pushed, he added: \u201cThere is potential in Independent Ireland but they need to show their authenticity and to politically create far greater distance between themselves and Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of Independent Ireland\u2019s four TDs, Ken O\u2019Flynn, was a panellist at last weekend\u2019s forum. When asked if was he referring to Mr O\u2019Flynn, Hobbs replied: \u201cHe\u2019s an interesting character.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other TDs in Independent Ireland are Michael Collins, Richard O\u2019Donoghue and Michael Fitzmaurice.<\/p>\n
Ken O’Flynn ‘an interesting character’. File picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
US ambassador Edward Walsh\u2019s office contacted Mr Hobbs to facilitate attendance at the forum for the ambassador last week. Mr Walsh sat through two days of panel discussions at the event.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the US embassy said the presence of the ambassador at the forum was \u201croutine\u201d in terms of his \u201cbroad programme of engagements across the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes attending a wide range of conferences, cultural events, and meetings with community representatives, political and business leaders, government officials, and local stakeholders,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Ireland was specifically mentioned in the recently published National Security Strategy from the US government, which set out how the current administration wants to sees its focus and philosophy effectively exported to other countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica is, understandably, sentimentally attached to the European Continent \u2014 and, of course, to Britain and Ireland,\u201d the document states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n We want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s forum heard from a variety of speakers who proposed solutions to various problems, including housing and the declining fertility rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A number of conspiracy theories were also aired as were various allegations about immigrants and immigration in particular which have been shown elsewhere to be without foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cIrish Trump\u201d could emerge from the ranks of Independent Ireland, according to former financial advisor Eddie Hobbs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,1629,60,43,15151],"class_list":{"0":"post-248634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-immigration","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-racism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}