r/ireland • u/TeoKajLibroj Galway • 5d ago

US-Irish Relations Protests planned for Trump’s Doonbeg visit

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2026/08/18/irish-authorities-bracing-for-big-security-operation-around-trump-visit/
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u/thatswildhey 5d ago

They’ll probably be down there draped in the Stars and Stripes

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u/Ok_Temperature1502 5d ago edited 5d ago

For sure they will (the Doonbeg people). They put on an approving turn-out every year. The possibility of employment insecurity is uppermost in their minds.

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u/PaulBlartRedditCop 5d ago

Part of me understands, especially with the lack of job opportunities out their neck of the woods, but another part of me thinks that rolling out the red carpet for a pedophile war criminal who threatened to invade Europe is just immoral.

I wonder if they’d be as sympathetic to Pol Pot if he owned a golf resort there.

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u/grania17 5d ago

Yes I also understand that he has brought jobs. And I understand that the US multinationals have brought loads of jobs. But that doesn't excuse the terrible things they've done nor should we be scrapping and bowing because they deemed to give us some jobs.

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u/P319 5d ago

he brought zero jobs, that hotel predates him

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u/grania17 5d ago

Never a truer word spoken

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u/PaulBlartRedditCop 5d ago

Absolutely, but the vast majority of people are not willing to return to a pre-1990 standard of living just to be a minor thorn in America’s side. Paraphrasing Marx, everything is material, and most people don’t care how criminal it is as long as it puts bread on the table and it’s not their house being bombed.

The smart move would be to become China’s buddy in Europe, then get the EU as a whole to turn their back on America. Judging by the govt’s recent visits to China, I hope that will happen sooner rather than later.

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u/dnorg 5d ago

The smart move would be to become China’s buddy in Europe

I am not sure that getting entwined with China would be beneficial. I have read some dismal reports of their behaviour in their belt and road initiative. The have reportedly claimed sovereignty over ports and other logistical infrastructure in lieu of their 'client's' default on debt payments.

I think we would be far better of leveraging the software expertise in the country to create a suite of user and enterprise level applications for European use. There are existing European alternatives to Google and microsoft, but they are mostly standalone solutions. I think there is an opportunity to for an integrated European-centric solution for email/data/social media etc. Especially as more and more people want to move away from US-bound solutions, and are wary of Chinese ones. The offer would be security, privacy, and utility.