Irish Labour leader opposes Trump visit to Ireland

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In a tweet on Friday, the Irish Labour leader, Brendan Howlin, said his party would “join with likeminded people to oppose this visit”, as Trump “has been no friend of democracy or human rights”.

Howlin wrote: “We will always be firm friends of the American people, but Ireland will not welcome a man with Trump’s record of discrimination, sexism and lies.”

A giant balloon depicting Donald Trump as an angry baby is set to head over to Ireland to join protests planned for the US president’s in November.

The White House confirmed Mr Trump’s visit on Friday, triggering preparations by Irish activists for “large scale public demonstrations” against the divisive figure.

British campaigners behind the baby balloon protest said the Irish trip was “an excellent opportunity” to troll Mr Trump again.

The six-metre high blimp – which shows the US president wearing a nappy and holding a smartphone – was first seen at anti-Trump protests in London while the president was in the UK for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

“We’d love to take the Trump baby over to Ireland for the president’s visit,” Kevin Smith, one of the organisers, told The Independent.

“When we passed our original crowd-funding target, we said we’d use the excess money to take the Trump baby wherever we could to globally troll Donald, and so this would be an excellent opportunity.

US president Donald Trump has been told he is not welcome in Ireland with two Government Ministers saying they intend to boycott his visit in November.

Independent Alliance Ministers Finian McGrath and John Halligan said they intended to join the protests that are anticipated to take place when Mr Trump arrives as part of a European trip, which will see him participate in events to mark the centenary of the end of the first World War...

Mr Halligan told the Sunday Business Post that “if I was to meet him, there’d be an argument.

“I hope he does come, because there’ll be a massive demonstration”.

Both Ministers said they would boycott any State events with Mr Trump and also join demonstrations against the visit...

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett described the Government’s decision to welcome Mr Trump to Ireland as “shameful.”

Mr Boyd Barrett, who was one of the organisers of large protests against the US led Iraq war in 2003, said he has already contacted other groups, organisations and parties with a view to organising major demonstrations when the US president arrives.

“Opposing Trump is not a protest against the American people, it is a protest in solidarity with the tens of millions of American’s who are the victims and opponents of Trump’s hateful politics,” he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed that US President Donald Trump has postponed his visit to Ireland.

There was uncertainty over his planned visit to Ireland after a White House press secretary earlier this week said Washington was still finalising the visit.

However, speaking at an economic conference at the American Embassy in Dublin today, Mr Varadkar said:

As you know this week US President Donald Trump has to postpone his proposed trip to Ireland, however whenever it takes place we look forward to the opportunity to renew the deep, historic ties that exist between our two countries.

"We can all agree the future US-Ireland economic relationship is of profound importance to all of us here."