"Clearly the outpouring of objections to this visit has had the desired effect as President Trump has decided not to come to Ireland. Mr. Trump is the face of hate, racism and division."
The planned visit of President Donald Trump to Ireland in November has been cancelled. He was expected to visit his golf resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, and Dublin near the weekend of November 10-11.
An advance party from the White House was due to visit Ireland in the coming weeks to plan the trip. On Tuesday afternoon the Irish government confirmed the visit was “postponed” due to “scheduling reasons.” The visit would have been Trump’s first to Ireland since his election.
Read more: Trump announces US Ambassador to Ireland after cancelling trip
The White House announced on August 31 that Trump will travel to Paris in November to participate in a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the fighting in World War I. His visit to Ireland was due to coincide with that trip, and was meant to “renew the deep and historic ties between our countries,” a White House Press Office statement said.
The Labour Party, Green Party and Solidarity-People Before Profit pledged to organize protests surrounding the visit. Senator Aodhan O Riordain, a member of the Labour Party and a vocal opponent of Trump, issued a statement to The Irish Times praising the Irish people for making their displeasure of Trump known.
Senator Aodhan O Riordain.
“Clearly the outpouring of objections to this visit has had the desired effect as President Trump has decided not to come to Ireland. Mr. Trump is the face of hate, racism and division. The organization I helped found – Irish Stand – has consistently criticized the hypocrisy of Irish-Americans supporting this man considering the immigrant history of the Irish,” he said.
Though the Irish government was caught by surprise in the days before the official announcement of Trump’s planned Irish visit, the Times reports that before word leaked out on Tuesday about the cancellation, the government was unaware of Trump’s intentions to cancel.
“Earlier on Tuesday senior Irish officials received informal indications from Washington that the trip might not go ahead. No official announcement has yet been made by either the White House or Government Buildings in Dublin. Several senior sources in Dublin knew nothing about the proposed cancellation on Tuesday afternoon,” the Times said.
Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party, was one of many Twitter users who expressed relief that Trump will not travel to Ireland this year.
President Trump's visit to Ireland was announced out of the blue and has now been cancelled in the same erratic way. We are glad what could potentially have been avery undignified and divisive event is not now going ahead. #trumpinirelandhttps://t.co/9j2XB5aPQb
— Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) September 11, 2018
“President Trump's visit to Ireland was announced out of the blue and has now been cancelled in the same erratic way. We are glad what could potentially have been a very undignified and divisive event is not now going ahead,” Ryan tweeted.
For the most part, Twitter users reacted gleefully to the nixed Trump trip. “Trump has cancelled his visit to Ireland. In unrelated news, would anyone like to buy a home-made trebuchet that can fling rotten vegetables four hundred meters?” one user wrote.
Read more: Is Trump’s canceled Irish trip a new low for US-Irish relations?
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