Donald Trump and his family have been enjoying a warm welcome on these shores, particularly at their golf resort in Doonbeg. Donald Junior and his brother Eric treated locals to drinks in village bars on Wednesday night and hailed the people of Doonbeg as ‘great neighbors’, as the eyes of the world media watched on – many of them joining in the celebrations.
But not everyone is so happy about the reception according to the Trumps. Professor John Brennan, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration and the Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies at Maynooth University joined Gavin on Morning Focus. He discussed as he described the Trump brothers as ‘Beavis and Butthead’ ignoring their father’s policies on immigration.
I will be speaking to Gavin Grace on @ClareFM at or about 920 about Trump in Doonbeg (recording).
I think I can say that it was a robust discussion.#Doonbeg — John O’Brennan (@JohnOBrennan2) June 7, 2019
Pat Breen – Minister for State for Business, Enterprise and Innovation was among the entourage of Government ministers who’ve been in close quarters with President Trump and his wife, Melania. He believes Donald Trump will pay more than one visit to Ireland as President and that he is a ‘pleasant man’. He joined Gavin to discuss what he thought of the presidents arrival
Former Clare hurler Colin Ryan spoke to Gavin about the upcoming Munster Championship against Limerick on Sunday.
We are joined again by our Friday Panel:
Margaret O’Brien – Director of Strategy, Ennis Chamber of Commerce
Trudy Leyden – member of Fine Gael in Clare and a representative of the Clare Public Participation Network
Brian Meaney – Former Green Party member of Clare County Council
The questions we put to our panel this morning were:
Will the Trump visit have a lasting impact for Ireland (County Clare included)? ·
Did the Taoiseach ‘bottle it’ by failing to raise the climate change issue with Trump? · Should we introduce a carbon tax – if so, how?
And is housework a gender equality issue?
And to end the show we looked ahead at the weekend events:
1) Imelda Bourke joined to talk about Taste the Loop in Kilkee which is on next Sunday. You’re invited to a celebration of the flavours of the Loop Head Peninsula. There’ll be music, food and oodles of prizes up for grabs when you take part in our Loop Head raffle.
2) Dr Brendan Dunford from the Burren in Bloom Programme spoke to us about what is going on at the Burren across the weekend.