{"id":619329,"date":"2026-09-09T13:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619329\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:28:13","slug":"trump-family-more-than-welcome-at-revamped-morrisseys-pub-in-doonbeg-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619329\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump family \u2018more than welcome\u2019 at revamped Morrissey\u2019s pub in Doonbeg \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eamonn Vaughan, the new owner of Morrissey\u2019s bar in Doonbeg, Co Clare<\/a> is in the throes of erecting marquees to prepare for the Irish Open<\/a> at the nearby Trump International Golf Links when he pauses to say that the Trump family is \u201cmore than welcome\u201d at his pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might controversial to people not from Doonbeg but there is no real talk in Doonbeg about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The US president is expected to spend time at his Trump International Doonbeg resort during the Irish Open golf event, which begins on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know Donald Trump<\/a> is coming. He has come before when he was president, so there is no one in Doonbeg who\u2019s really into politics or gets involved. We can\u2019t really change what\u2019s happening in the world. All we can do is make sure that everyone who comes to Doonbeg wants to come back again next year and the year after and the year after,\u201d says Vaughan.<\/p>\n

The pub hosted the US president\u2019s family during the 2019 visit, with the president\u2019s sons pulling pints behind the bar under previous owner Hugh McNally\u2019s tenure. Morrissey\u2019s also welcomed former US vice president Mike Pence, a cousin of McNally\u2019s, in October that year. <\/p>\n

Vaughan says that as things stand, there are no plans to host the Trumps in Morrissey\u2019s this weekend. <\/p>\n

He describes the nearby Trump hotel and golf resort as \u201cfantastic\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t knock that. It\u2019s huge for the village, it\u2019s huge for west Clare never mind the village. The amount of people it has employed directly and indirectly is phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan, chief executive of specialist plant hire company Groundshore in Manchester, England did not have his sights set on a career in hospitality until he came home to Doonbeg for Christmas last year. <\/p>\n

\"Morrissey'sMorrissey’s of Doonbeg, where new owner Eamonn Vaughan is preparing for the Irish Open at nearby Trump International Golf Links \"DonaldDonald Trump jnr (centre), and Eric Trump (right) behind the bar in Tubridy\u2019s Bar in the village of Doonbeg, Co Clare. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

\u201cI had heard rumours that Morrissey\u2019s might be for sale. I did a deal with Hugh McNally. For me, it more to buy it and continue that legacy more for Morrissey\u2019s than myself.\u201d <\/p>\n

The pub was previously leased by a consortium including Dublin-based hospitality entrepreneur Alan Clancy and former rugby,international Conor Murray but was closed for a time before Vaughan reopened it in April. <\/p>\n

The business returning to local ownership is \u201cmassive\u201d, says Vaughan. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen that with the customers, they maybe didn\u2019t feel it was local over the period it was leased. Prior to that, it was run by Hugh McNally for 25 years and I think he has done a fierce job and built up a great reputation and brought it back again to where it should be and needs to be and hopefully where it will stay,\u201d he says, adding that McNally has been instrumental in getting Morrissey\u2019s ready to reopen this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cLocal business is huge. Everyone thinks the golf course business is the real business. Look it\u2019s grand during the summer but during the winter you definitely need the local support.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Morrissey'sMorrissey’s of Doonbeg from above <\/p>\n

However, Vaughan says that \u201cit\u2019s a great year\u201d to buy the pub, which he says dates back to the 1800s.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are getting totally carried away because Donald Trump owns the golf club in Doonbeg. Donald Trump has very little to do with what is happening in organising this,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish Open at Doonbeg: What are the tee times? When is it on TV? When is Donald Trump going to be there?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Irish Open, it\u2019s not about Donald Trump\u2019s visit. What I would say to them is, look there are loads of newspaper articles criticising Donald Trump but sure look this is not about Donald Trump at all, this is about west Clare and the Irish Open and making it hospitable to people so that they would come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eamonn Vaughan, the new owner of Morrissey\u2019s bar in Doonbeg, Co Clare is in the throes of erecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,15469,969,15470,61,60,1393],"class_list":["post-619329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-clare","tag-donald-trump","tag-doonbeg","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619329","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=619329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}