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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that he may well visit Ireland soon, during a meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office in the White House.
Speaking about Ireland, Trump said “I love it. I love it”.
The US president described Irish-Americans as ‘wonderful people’, and said the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was ‘interesting’.
“I look forward to being there. Great country,” the US president said.
Trump said that it was his ‘great honour to have the very popular prime minister of Ireland with us’ and that the two had been have ‘good talks about trade and about military and about cyber’.
He praised Irish-American relations, saying: “The relationship [between the two countries] is outstanding and only getting better.”
Trump said it was great to have the Taoiseach in the White House, pointing out that it was Varadkar’s first time in the Oval Office.
“I was telling President Trump, I was here before as a congressional intern back in 2000, but they didn’t let me into the Oval Office,” the Taoiseach said.
“But now we do,” President Trump responded. “You’ve made great progress”.
Trump and Varadkar met as part of the Taoiseach’s week-long trip to the United States to mark St Patrick’s Day.
The two spoke about the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York, with Trump noting that it goes “right by Trump Tower”.
When asked whether the two would play golf together, the Taoiseach said he doesn’t play but was “willing to learn”.
During the brief meeting, Trump answered questions about the newly-announced sanctions against some Russians and said it was a “very sad situation”.
Before the meeting, Varadkar met with Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States.
The Taoiseach is spending a week in the United States as part of his St Patrick’s trip across the Atlantic, the purpose of which is “to advance Ireland’s economic and political interests in the US, and to celebrate old and new cultural and community ties”.
Varadkar had said yesterday that the invitation to President Trump to visit Ireland still stands.
Last St Patrick’s Day, his predecessor Enda Kenny extended the invitation to the newly-elected president.
Speaking after a meeting at the US Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Varadkar said he would like to show Trump the border with Northern Ireland.
“The invitation that Enda Kenny made to Donald Trump stands. Donald Trump has invited me to Washington DC and he is going to invite me to his house. I think it is absolutely appropriate, it’s normal hospitality, that when somebody invites you to their front room in their house that you reciprocate with an invitation,” he said.
After his meeting with President Trump in the White House, the Taoiseach will attend a lunch on Capitol Hill. He will return to the White House later this evening for the traditional shamrock ceremony.
With reporting by Christina Finn in the White House
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From what is described, it doesn’t seem to be they are going to get rich quick. Besides, it is surely costly to give up time for a cause. Isn’t it why we pay our politicians?
Finally why demonise immigration protesters as “far right protesters”?
@John Ivory: like when others protested/demonised Irish immigrants abroad when they needed help?
@John Ivory: you should look at a few of these lads gofundme pages, some are making thousands a month.
@dreiglaser: not sure irish immigrants received this type of protest. I was an Irish immigrant in early 70s Britain and didn’t get this. The black and Asian communities certainly did and we got some hostility, but not protesting outside homes.
@dreiglaser: That was wrong then and thisis wring now.
@Tipper Irie: I was in England in the late sixties and it was common. In some cases you had to adopt an English accent to rent accommodation. Workplaces were full of blatant anti-Irish sentiment, you had to be fairly robust to stand up for yourself.
@John Ivory: The Journal.ie is another mouthpiece for the government. The issue won’t go away. People like myself with legitimate questions about capacity for services are being dismissed by left, right and centre. Where else do we have to go? Local elections? General elections? Who do we even vote for then? Until then what else do we do but look at more homelessness, more crowds in hospitals etc?
@Tipper Irie: you must have missed all the signs saying “Irish or blacks or xxx need not apply”
@John Ivory:
Because many immigration protesters ARE politically far-right and racist.
@John Ivory: No, we pay them to do a job, As regards far right the things they say are right.
@Ollie O’Cleirigh: Oeople wont listen to you and the journal is a government mouth piece. Wow you are having a bad day. Politicians love answering questions. You might not like the answers.
I personally do not share any identity with the far right who I think are being vastly overestimated in their numbers and popularity of late. I do however think that so called centrist political parties these days are pushing people more towards extremist politics in both the left and right. I’d wager that most sensible citizens would welcome people in genuine need of protection, in numbers we can realistically deal with but would resent fraudulent people seeking asylum who seem to be increasing in numbers in recent years.
@Longlin: the “far right” narrative is codswallop and being used as an excuse to mask the genuine concerns of ordinary citizens. All you hear from the media and politicians is “far right”, reminds me of The WMDs that George Bush used to pedal, said so often it became the defacto truth when in reality there was no truth to it at all.
You’ll find most Irish people are neither far left or far right, but the media takes the small percentage of people that are and use that to form the narrative for everyone. I call it the Joe Duffy syndrome, 10 people ring to give out about something and suddenly the whole country is up in arms when in reality most don’t care.
Our genuine concert aren’t being heard and the politicians won’t care until election time rolls into town.
@Joshua Walsh: How far left does SF stand on the issue of illegal economic migrants. Should be interesting come election time.
@Joshua Walsh: spot on!
@Joshua Walsh: absolute nail on the head.
@Mick Andrews: sf will stand wherever they can get most votes!!
A little bit like the Journal.ie begging for money ?
@gerard carey: Not at all like it. The journal doesn’t advocate harming people or use vitriolic hate language
@gerard carey:
Fools and their money ….
The Irony of such a far left post, attacking the far right.
@Daniel Bohan: hard to argue with you. You’ve made a very persuasive and detailed argument.
@Daniel Bohan: Alright Alanis.
@A$AP ETH: lol
@Daniel Bohan: You really dont understand far left if you think any journal piece is far left!!
It seems toi be a rgukar source of confusion on the jounral.
Did they not have history and civics in school anymore?
Meanwhile the opposition Sinn Fein are silent on migrants..
Ireland has taken in 77,000 Ukrainian migrants.
The UK has taken in 156,000 Ukrainian migrants.
Northern Ireland has taken in 1000 Ukrainian migrants.
Our population is 5million and NI is 2 million.
Ireland has had an accommodation crisis for the last few years and our politicians are forcing us to take 30 times more per capita than Northern Ireland.
@Roger Bond: Ukrainian refugees. Not migrants.
@Paul Clancy: They’re illegal undocumented immigrants. They destroy their documents before reaching immigration at our airports. Wake up.
@Michael Holland: not illegal, they have been given temporary stay until their asylum case is concluded
@Kevin Thompson: 70% male and 40% undocumented… facts are facts plus they are counting children so were a nice child trafficking nation too!
@Bodyfit Aloe Aloe: you’re talking through your hole. To be able to avail of the temporary protection order Ukrainians HAVE to show their documents proving who they are and where they’re from. The asylum seekers are in Ireland under a separate set of laws. They have to prove their case or they will be deported. Not having their documents does not help their case at all. The numbers arriving without documentation is greatly exaggerated by muppets like yourself. And NONE of them are illegal. Whether you’re here under an EU temporary protection order or waiting for your asylum case to be heard you’re here LEGALLY.
@Roger Bond: most of these Ukrainians could have been housed in western Ukraine. Interesting all EU politician’s flying into bombed Kiev at the moment – it’s a joke. The Russians must be having a right laugh – as immigrants disrupting the whole of Europe. Govn talking about citizenship here also fueling the whole situation – this would surely result in thousands more family members arriving that and the no cut off level for Ukranians.
@Barbara Coleman: you cannot fly into Kyiv so not sure where you are getting your information from.
Also, no part of Ukraine is free from Russian missile and drone attacks so yes they are refugees.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: But this system is surely flawed if there’s nowhere to house them on arrival and they end up being herded like cattle into abandoned buildings?
@Barbara Coleman: over 7 million could have been accommodated in Western Ukraine? What are you talking about!? When this war started all of Ukraine was being attacked. Nowhere was safe. And the electric grids are so badly damaged all over the country that many are currently living with either permanent or temporary blackouts. Sure there was food in Ireland during the potato famine, by your logic no one should have left or died then. I work with the Ukrainian population here and all over Ireland and NONE of them are here for a hand out or for the craic. They are here because they have lost everything, including family members. And they all want to contribute here. They are starting their own businesses to get off welfare. They are taking jobs that the Irish won’t
@Liz O’Neill: completely agree. We have over committed and the system is cracking. But that’s not what the protesters are protesting about.
@Michael Holland: Really have you met any of them as I did nd they have everything they left home with.
Wake up, you say, wise up and stop listening to the cheap pops from the haters.
Are there people who shpould not be here, yes there are. Is it a majoority , no it is not.
@Kevin Thompson: Don’t hold your breath..
@Gary Kearney: The video evidence I have seen are of military aged males, no women or children. These men should be fighting for / in their own country.
The government propaganda is just so blatant now it’s actually comical
@John Fahy: yes ..media never mention that we have 77,000 Ukrainian migrants and Northern Ireland have 1000..
If you say that you are labelled a far right fascist..
I am not far right by any means but I do not agree with the amount of unvetted asylum seekers the government are taking in there is no where to put them and they seem to be all men
Read a good point that the far right suits our Gov as it deflects from how badly or intentionally they are managing/ignoring issues in society. Divide and conquer, keep the plebs at each others throats. While multinationals, hedgefunds, banks, and developers carve up the country.
Well there’s a lot of Immigrant and Anti-racism groups getting direct state funding, so there’s plenty of money to be made from both sides on this.
@Shaner Mac: they’ll be following an official line, but they’ll be sitting back and facilitating the other side, I bet you. Good to cause distraction and division, so we all vote for them again next election, because Sinn Feinn will be perceived as too “left” ! Judging by all the posts here, they’re succeeding in pitching a left/right divide. So what? do we end up like the UK? so much for far right farage-like diatribe. People like him are now laughing all the way to the bank, not leading people to a better standard of living.
The truth is that fear is a powerful motivator. Another truth is that Gardaí cannot do politicians job. We must elect parties that don’t stoke fear.
Maybe this is because we’re one of the most indebted countries in the world which makes us poorer than Eritrea, and all our useless politicians can do is fake it until the pension. (Won’t even bother to ask if a journalist walked among them to ask for a few stories, god bless twitter)
@Watchful Axe: can you explain what you mean by “one of the most indebted countries in the world…poorer than Eritrea”? What’s your source for this? That seems to be contrary to anything I’ve read
@Y U no spell good?: highest debt per capita in the world 220 billion/pop of 5 million is roughly 44k per person. But there are other factors that influence how burdensome that is.
@Watchful Axe: poorer than Eritrea lol. Did you come to that conclusion using your economics masters?
This does not surpise me in the slightest, absolute chancers who spread hate and misinformation constantly. Honestly, if you’re angry with the folk arriving about the refugee situation, your anger is misdirected.
@Jen Mc: Agree , The anger should not be directed against refugees, but at the inept government who is quite willing to use protests to deflect from the their shambolic handling concerning the refugee problem.
@Jen Mc: I think I saw one of these guys videos on twitter. He was asking a bunch of men who I’d guess were of Afgan/Pakistani origin where they came from. They’re apparently Ukrainians throuhj and through and flew out from an airport in Ukraine that hasn’t been operable in years. And when asked why they were allowed to leave they all said they were in their 60s despite it being obvious that they weren’t. If we want to help people who really need help we can’t shy away from calling out and rejecting chances.
@Aileen Lawlor: I think we have the resources and should do the right thing, yes.
@Podge: You think? You saw their documents? You know these people and their backstories? Right, ok.
It never fails to amaze me how low this rag goes..
These spunkers are an embarrassment to irish-ness, I can’t wait to see how quickly they’re forgotten after they run their “candidates” in the elections.
theres agitaters in almost every protest. i personally welcome the Ukrainians and btw i’m i’m irish and i’m sleeping in my car, i havent protested and neither will i since our guests are a lot wrose off than we are, i’d much perfer to sleep in a car than wake up with my house or apt been blown out from under me
@Brendan Higgins: but i have absolutely no problem with protests, i take it we are a democrat country
@Brendan Higgins: seriously? Are you really sleeping in your car and are homeless?
@Shelly O’Shea: He’s not hiding behind a makey up name so I would assume he’s speaking truth
@Brendan Higgins: that’s the same thing some German people said in the 1920s and 30s about the Nazis I think.
If you want to protest fair enough, do it outside the Dáil where it might have some effect. They have got to listen if even for their own political reasons. NOT screaming and roaring and waving our (up to now) treasured and honoured tricolour in the faces of women and children going in and out of Citywest last week.
Just like trump and the Maga/Q grift show in the US.
The government / semi-states / church should provide a register of all lands owened and rented by the state and let the people examine this list for suitable accomodation.
there is loads of state lands not being used….
If you agree with massive numbers arriving in the country it’s perfectly acceptable,If you express any concerns then according to the snowflake left wing toothless main stream media you are a Far right extremist with a copy of Mein Kampf on the beside locker..George Hook was the last one with a set of balls until he got canceled.
Dear journalist. Why is the narrative pro globalist values and policies? The anti mass immigration views are not the minority opinion in Ireland. Can the media please stop repeating what our politicians are saying. Maybe these protests have the country’s best interests at heart. We live in a country whereby you will need a n appointment days in advance to see GP. We don’t have enough hospital beds. Not enough housing. Cannot get an NCT. And as proofed this week not enough school places. 26 children in limerick got no secondary school place and I know of many kids who didn’t get their first choice. This is scandalous… children being rejected and old people rejected and neglected in hospitals Why should the irish people continue to suffer for the sake of globalist idealism
@Graham Ahern: Are you one of them?
@Pat Barry: no I’m not. I’m a proud irish man. My eyes are open and I’m intelligent enough to see what is happening to my country. Our country is being ruined by these policies and for anyone to disagree they either do not care, brainwashed by government and media or imply do not possess the IQ to know what is going on. Our nationist heroes would be turning in their grave Pat
@Graham Ahern: I’d bet if these ran a poll Globalism would come out on top.
@Pat Barry: I don’t know. Not as straight forward as that. Alot of people dont know the meaning of globalist ideals. If you were to ask basic questions in the poll such as good infastructures such health care , education, housing as opposed to letting the country become over populated as a ratio to these said infrastructures I bet I know what people would vote for. That is without mentioning the serious and violent crime rates of refugees per population of refugees as a ratio to same crime rates per population of irish men. I am talking about violent and sexual crimes against women here.
@Graham Ahern: One in four Irish women who have been in a relationship have been abused by a current or former partner.
@Pat Barry: source?
@Pat Barry: and if your stats are true and taking into account the type of abuse timeliness, timeline and history based data then I would say that the refugees would be up there at 3 in 4 Pat
@Graham Ahern: It’s womensaid.ie
@Pat Barry: domestic violence data which is a problem in Ireland for sure. Often linked to substance abuse etc which is very sad. What I am talking about here is rape and murder – opportunist attackers. They come from countries where women are second class citizens. There has been plenty of examples of these crimes in ladt few years pat but you won’t hear too much about it on mainstream media because the media are controlled.
@Graham Ahern: The EU should adopt a Rwanda style plan for asylum seekers as a number of countries have implemented/ are signing up for.
@Pat Barry: that plan was developed and implemented br the British those whom qualified were sent back to Rawanda and supported in their own country? Is this what you refer to?
@Graham Ahern: Yeah as you said Graham, the ones we have no history on, who arrive into Ireland with no documentation, possibly undesirables. Israel sent their’s there from 2014-2018 on the qt and have since abandoned the practice, currently a number of African countries have the arrangement with Rwanda along with the UK. Denmark has signed up and Austria and Belgium are advocating strongly for it in the EU.
@Pat Barry: I am not racist. I just think our country cannot provide basic services for an already growing population so I am against the EU policy on migration and refugee quotas. I also have studied the war in Ukraine in depth and my view on it is not fir this forum. All I will say is that Zelenskyy can end war but does not want to
@Graham Ahern: Sure that was always the case, young people are still leaving because Ireland has failed to give them confidence in a viable future, 60K year on year or whatever the figure is. Re globalism I think Ireland has been a beneficiary of this, moving from an agricultural country to a high tech one. Nothing ever stays the same.
@Pat Barry: take a look at England, Belgium parts of France mate. Mass immigration destroyed them. Isis etc. Ireland moved on too fast. Anything in life rushed is never right . We need to be able to get the basics right before being the mother Theresa to all things outside our country. We are not allowed have opinion or its condemned by politicians as racist which is incorrect. There’s a global movement and it all deeives from cheap labour. Ireland getting 3k per refugee from eu. Out country is doomed mate
Quite a lot of very scary comments on this article.
If these are at all representative o public opinion, I’m glad I don’t live in Ireland.
I’m glad also that when I left Ireland as an economic migrant in the 1980s I didn’t have to face hostility from the population of the country I went to live in, although it had a very large share of foreign residents
@Lesidees: it isn’t at all.
@Lesidees: Like the vast majority of Irish immigrants I’m sure you worked like a dog and didn’t take advantage of welfare..Unlike our most generous welfare system in the world which encourages a lot of career wasters
@Lesidees: Quick question. Did you falsely claim your life was in danger and apply for asylum like many of the applicants here coming from stable countries? Did the government of your new country put you up in a hotel and give you a weekly allowance to live there or did you need to work hard and find your own accommodation? I’ve never seen any protests in Ireland about genuine economic migrants who work here and look after themselves without handouts, but now people are rightly questioning the amount of chancers in the system these days that very often have destroyed their documentation on board their flight here.
@Longlin: how many chancers? How many from stable countries?
@Lesidees: This link will give you a flavour from 2021. Numbers from the Ukraine in the last year will obviously skew the figures of late but I’d guess that international applicants would be still broadly in line with that year. I don’t put blame on the people or chancers who I describe who are seeking to play the system, but do blame the government and particularly the minister who tweeted that all arriving here would get their own door accommodation regardless of merit when they turn up here.
Sheep are easily parted from their money and usually give it willingly just look at the Trump sheep who throw what little money they have at him for no benefit at all to them in the end.
LADS, look at Brexit in the UK!!! IT’S NOT ABOUT RIGHT OR LEFT, IT’S ABOUT LOOSING RIGHTS TO ACCEPTIBLE STANDARDS OF LIVING, AND OUR LOT IN POWER ARE HAPPILY FACILITATING THIS AS IT CAUSES DIVISION IN THE POTENTIAL OPPOSITION FOR THE COMING ELECTION.. ITS NOT THE FAULT OF IMMIGRANTS, THEY’RE BEING DISPLACED, AND DRIVEN HERE. I strongly believe MASS HOMELESSNESS IS THE BIGGEST WHITE COLLAR CRIME OUR government has caused. I believe internationally, there’s also a drive to displace people and take their property for development purposes, en mass. The far right at the top is tied up in this, Mark my WORD. IT DISRUPTS, DIVIDES, AND DIVERTS FROM THE REAL ISSUES.
I don’t think anyone has a problem with people coming from war torn counties that need protection but really we cannot even look after our own it’s only going to get worse. Someone needs to say stop /fixing our house’s problem Building house’s will solve so many problem attracting Doctor and Nurses that have a place to live this will fix our health service helping the homeless it’s not rocket science but these clowns they are more interested in looking good and talking s.h.i.t.e then doing anything good how many year have we know about the housing and healthcare issues and nothing has been done to fix the problem give someone else the chance to fix it
@Martin Laird: they are doing that. So it’s not an accurate argument.
@Martin Laird: the Irish “homeless” receive emergency accommodation in the form of a hotel room. Not ideal but it’s certainly better than migrants sleeping in a big open hall on mattresses.
There is a world of a difference between citizens expressing genuine concern and racist bigots suggesting that we ‘burn the bast**rds out if it’ and far right fascist thugs expressing going on about ‘illegal refugees (an oxymoron!) taking our jobs and our women’.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: the issue is, we’re all in it together, regardless of how much one might abhor the heightened emotions and misdirected aspirations, people need to change and work for a common goal. These self interested far right agitators, get funded from higher up, and as this article suggests, from lower down too! which if you consider it, is even better for the elite, faceless funders. Why waste time pointing the finger at each other?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Listening to the main stream left wing media in this country they don’t make any distinction..if a citizen has any concerns about massive numbers of unvetted Males and Females arriving then they are a right wing extremist with a large Nazi flag draped on the wall behind their bed.
Anyone who sends money to these 2 clowns needs serious help
How many of Graham Carey’s “followers” turned up at the district court on Friday to show their support for him? Zero.
How many turned up to Scott Delaney’s “rally ” in the Garden Of Remembrance today?
Zero.
“
A Telegram account…what the hell is that
@James Fox: It’s a tele-messaging service, similar to What’s App.
The far right is statistically populated by the uneducated. Phrase of the day is ‘unvetted’. Like do those who trot out this word even understand the meaning of it? The problem we have is that, slowly, organisations (based mainly in Germany but with connections in UK) have been sh!t stirring, organising hate fests. Covid was the catalyst. Let no one be under any illusions, this is about skin colour and nothing else. Sad, sad times. Thankfully these caillteoirí are a vocal minority.
@Anú Ni Shúilleabháin: I wouldn’t be sure it’s a vocal minority. The number of likes on comments in relation to immigration would suggest that the majority have concerns about the immigration policy. As regards to skin colour, a good percentage of international protection applicants are from European countries like Georgia and Albania which aren’t war torn and are regarded as safe in international standards. Many others are from the likes of Zimbabwe and South Africa which are regarded as safe. It’s common knowledge among these applicants that Ireland is a place that there is a very good chance of not being deported and this is reinforced by the minister in charge that applicants will be given own door accommodation as tweeted in recent months in their own language.
According to the Journal, anyone with a different opinion is far right. I disaggree with the Journals opinion and I am not far right. I am of the opinion that we are being overan with refugees, at a cost to our own people. There are a lot of refugees who are working in direct provision, they do not have to pay rent, electricity, heating, food and WiFi. Irish people are renting and paying for everything. They are being destroyed financially with no help from their so-called Government. This system is a joke, the joke is on the Irish people, who are being made to pay for everything taxed to the hilt.
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