A PROTEST AGAINST Donald Trump\u2019s visit to Ireland this week aims to show the US president he\u2019s not welcome, and the Irish government that they were wrong to \u201cencourage\u201d him.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s due to visit Dublin on Saturday, where official state meet-and-greets will take place, before heading to his golf course in Co Clare for the Irish Open.<\/p>\n
A protest is organised by the Irish Neutrality League, which is made up of several left-leaning opposition parties, as well as advocacy groups such as the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.<\/p>\n
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett hopes for \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of participants in Saturday\u2019s protest, to oppose Trump\u2019s \u201ctoxic and dangerous agenda\u201d and show him he\u2019s not welcome.<\/p>\n
He said it\u2019s \u201cdisgraceful\u201d that the government \u201cencouraged\u201d him to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows just how subservient and complicit with his agenda really they are. But it doesn\u2019t represent the will of the majority of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A poll by Ireland Thinks and the Sunday Independent showed 69% of those surveyed didn\u2019t welcome the visit.<\/p>\n
It is anticipated that Donald Trump will arrive in Air Force One on Saturday morning before visiting President Catherine Connolly and meeting Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin.<\/p>\n
He will also have a get-together with his friend, Ambassador to Ireland, Ed Walsh and a number of guests at an event in the US ambassador\u2019s residence in the Phoenix Park.<\/p>\n
Trump will then travel to Doonbeg, Co Clare, where the Irish Open is taking place this year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Blamed for fuel crisis<\/p>\n
Patricia Stephenson, a Social Democrats senator, said Trump \u201chas brought the fuel crisis down upon every single household in this country\u201d through his involvement in wars.<\/p>\n
The coalition has also taken issue with Trump\u2019s support of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, which Stephenson said is \u201ctearing to shreds the whole concept of peacemaking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is carving up Gaza as if it\u2019s some sort of like modern-day real estate deal from his time on the telly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in TD Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire said the Irish government\u2019s welcoming of Trump is \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d, as it is \u201cdipping our toes into the water where we could easily be swept away by the great powers\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Trump is visiting for \u201cselfish interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Money-making photo opportunity\u2019<\/p>\n
The Irish Open should not be held in Doonbeg, but rather on another golf course, according to\u00a0Ciar\u00e1n Ahern of the Labour Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is nothing more than a money-making photo opportunity to normalise the US president, to appease him. And that is absolutely disgusting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he hopes Connolly will bring up Ireland\u2019s grievances with Trump, Ahern said he expects she\u2019ll give him a dignified welcome, but will also \u201cspeak her mind\u201d.<\/p>\n
The protest will begin at 1pm on Saturday at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square. Participants will then march through town and finish at Molesworth Street.<\/p>\n
Sara O\u2019Rourke, a PhD researcher and one of the organisers, said the details had been up in the air until now because of garda\u00ed \u201cnot wanting us to march at all\u201d, and instead remain at the Garden of Remembrance.<\/p>\n
The major security operation that is the visit already demanded significant deployment of garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PROTEST AGAINST Donald Trump\u2019s visit to Ireland this week aims to show the US president he\u2019s not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[969,15470,262944,61,60,1393,1843,43,24168,3186],"class_list":["post-619665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donald-trump","tag-doonbeg","tag-frosty-reception","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-open","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-protests","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619665","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=619665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}