LAST UPDATE | 7 Jun 2019
DONALD TRUMP HAS left Ireland after a two-night stay in Doonbeg, Co Clare.
The US President and his wife Melania boarded Air Force One this afternoon at Shannon Airport.
Earlier, Trump met with local schoolchildren at his golf course in Doonbeg, Co Clare on the last day of his European visit.
Principal of Clohanes National School, Aideen O’Mahoney told RTÉ’s News at One that 27 children went to the hillside this afternoon next to the school beside the ninth hole of Trump’s golf course where they happened to meet the US president.
Trump came to greet the children, posed for photographs with them and the children then sang a verse of My Lovely Rose of Clare to him. “He was so pleasant with [the children],” O Mahoney has said. “They are just absolutely gobsmacked, they just can’t believe it.”
Trump completed his European tour of Britain, France and Ireland with a round of golf at his Co Clare resort today before boarding Air Force One to return stateside.
Trump returned to his Doonbeg resort following the D-Day commemorations in Normandy in the north of France yesterday.
Last night he attended a dinner at his five-star hotel which was attended by the Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall and Fine Gael TD John Deasy as well as Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly.
As Trump attended the formal dinner in Clare, the largest Trump protest to be hosted in Ireland during his visit took place at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.
A number of TDs including Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Labour senator Aodhán O’Riordáin attended the protest.
The famous ‘Trump baby’ was also imported from Britain and raised over Parnell Square during the protest.
The security operation has now been wound down, after 1,500 uniformed Gardaí, along with 500 special unit Gardaí, were drafted in from western, southern, south-eastern and Dublin regions to tighten security around Clare.
The US president was welcomed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar when he arrived following a two-day state visit to the UK on Wednesday.
During a press conference, he told reporters that Varadkar was “doing a great job as prime minister” and that Brexit would be “very good” for Ireland.
- with reporting from Cónal Thomas and Gráinne Ní Aodha
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say