‘Majority do not welcome him’: Trump heads to Ireland amid fury over Gaza — SkimNews
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- Trump is set to arrive in Ireland on Saturday, where a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll found 69% of Irish people do not support his visit
- Protests are planned across Ireland — including Dublin's Garden of Remembrance — under the banner 'No Kings,' with marchers citing his role in 'facilitating genocide' in Gaza; the demonstration is organized by the Irish Neutrality League with endorsements from Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats, Labour, People Before Profit-Solidarity, and the Green Party
- Roughly 4,000 security personnel, including about 1,000 US Secret Service agents and 'anti-drone weaponry,' will be enlisted to protect Trump during the visit
- Trump is expected to meet Taoiseach Micheal Martin, President Catherine Connolly, and the US ambassador, then visit his Doonbeg resort during the Irish Open; Phoenix Park — one of Europe's largest — will be temporarily shut down for the visit
- President Catherine Connolly, who secured a landslide victory in October 2025, has previously said the US, along with France and England, is a nation Ireland 'certainly cannot trust,' though her role is largely ceremonial
- Ireland was the first European Union country to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements, and Trinity College Dublin became the first university in the world to officially sever ties with Israel
Why it matters: The visit crystallizes a tension the source itself surfaces: Connolly has called the US untrustworthy and 69% of Irish people oppose the trip, yet a University College Dublin political scientist concedes 'Ireland depends on the US, and there's an economic relationship at stake' — so the protest movement is unlikely to alter Dublin's actual posture even as it forces a 4,000-strong security deployment and the shutdown of Phoenix Park.
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