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Donald Trump’s controversial White House ballroom project has faced a series of legal hurdles, through which Trump has mostly bulldozed. Though the courts have sided with the National Trust of Historic Preservation in its lawsuit following the demolition of the East Wing, construction carries on as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts allowed construction to continue in a temporary stay issued on August 21.
While Trump’s White House ballroom has reached the highest court in the land, in the small Irish coastal village of Doonbeg, about an hour and a half south of Galway by car, Trump’s other ballroom project may be dead in the water. All it took was a colony of threatened microscopic snails, 50 euros, and a litigious architect dubbed the “Condom Man.”
Must Read Trump’s Ireland ballroom stalled by Irish architect
Doonbeg dates its origins back to the 1500s. The village has a few small pubs like Comerford’s Bar or The Igoe Inn Bar or Tubridy’s Bar and Restaurant. But the economy primarily revolves around a Trump-owned golf course and resort, which he purchased in 2014.
In January 2026, Eric Trump flew to Ireland seeking approval to build “the nicest ballroom in Ireland,” which would span 13,000 square feet with a 320-person capacity. The trip cost $21,499.01 in taxpayer dollars, according to The Independent.
Decidedly less controversial than the one being built on White House grounds, the ballroom was seen as a windfall by Doonbeg’s residents — almost all Doonbeg residents. Embattled snails living on Doonbeg’s beaches would be heavily affected by construction.
Slightly bigger than the grains of sand it lives among, the vertigo angustior snail is hard to spot, harder still as the species has become threatened by eutrophication and habitat destruction as a result of shoreline developments. Also known as the narrow-mouthed whorl snail, its population has dropped since Trump purchased the resort.
These mollusks are the focal point of a planning appeal filed by Liam Madden, something of a figure across the country. Madden is an architect by trade, but he’s most known for his work in Ireland’s development planning system, using appeals to torpedo development projects across the country.
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“I’ve caught them with their pants down,” Madden told the Washington Post.
The Trump Organization uses helicopters to fly guests in and out of the area, with heli landings by the hotel and on the golf course. However, the organization did not consider the helicopters’ ecological effect — particularly its effect on the snails.
Madden wrote in his appeal that the ballroom proposal was, “tainted at law and beyond remedy.”
Liam “Vitruvius Hibernicus” Madden: ‘I’m modest, as well’
In the 90s, if you wanted something built — or not built — you’d go to Madden. This reputation earned Madden the nickname “Condom Man” among developers.
“You’d use him once, and then throw him out,” Irish federal senator Joe Flaherty told the Washington Post.
Filing a planning appeal with Ireland’s planning commission, the An Coimisiún Pleanála, is widely accessible. Madden lives in Longford, a three-hour drive from Doonbeg, yet he can file appeals for developments across the country. His appeal against the ballroom, a preliminary “observation,” cost him 50 euros, holding up its construction for months.
In his email address, Madden calls himself “Vitruvius Hibernicus.” His resume includes objecting to a glass elevator in St. Mel’s Cathedral because it would be problematic for “Scotsmen visiting in their kilts” and challenging MMA fighter Conor McGregor’s boutique hotel.
Madden refers to himself as “the most successful appellant in the history of the Irish state,” according to the Washington Post. “There simply isn’t anyone better,” he said. “I’m modest, as well.”
Previously, Madden won an appeal against a 1.7-mile rock wall that the Trumps proposed to slow shoreline erosion, which would’ve also spelled disaster for the threatened whorl snails.
“St. Patrick on March 17 drove the snakes out of Ireland, and Liam Madden wanted to emulate that by driving Donald Trump out of Ireland,” Madden, referring to himself in the third person, told his local paper the Longford Leader when he won his appeal.
Already having beaten Trump’s wall, Madden’s hoping to take down the ballroom, as well. The national appellate board is expected to make a decision by the end of the year. Flaherty says even if Madden loses, “he’ll just find something else and keep going at it.”
Regardless of the appellate board’s ruling, Madden is right where he wants to be: smack dab in the middle of the story. He said, “If there is a God in heaven, I will win the planning appeals and capitalize on it for notoriety.”
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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Irish architect dubbed ‘Condom Man’ files €50 appeal to block Trump’s 13K-sq-ft Doonbeg ballroom over threatened snails
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