Ireland

Doonbeg on Trump: ‘People in west Clare don’t get too bothered with what goes on in the wider world’

Locals say they don’t really discuss ‘hush money’ trial, but are more focused on the success of the hotel and golf club which brings millions in to the village

Former US president Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Co Clare, during his visit to Ireland in May 2023. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Gordon Deegan
Fri May 31 2024 - 19:34

“The legal and political side of the Trump organisation isn’t a priority for us, to be honest.”

That is according to a shop owner in Doonbeg, Co Clare, when asked to comment on Donald Trump being convicted for falsifying business records in the New York City “hush money” trial.

A Fianna Fáil member of Clare County Council, Rita McInerney, said “there hasn’t been much talk about it in the shop or anything like that”.

She said: “There might be the odd comment but it is not preoccupying customers. They are more animated when talking about the need for the resort to be a success and the spin-off it creates for the area.”

READ MORE

Since the Doonbeg golf resort came under the ownership of the Trump Organisation in February 2014, the former US president’s company has ploughed more than €40 million, including the purchase price, into the resort.

Mr Trump has visited the resort seven times, with the most high-profile visit in June 2019 – the businessman’s only visit to Ireland while president of the US.

Speaking while on her own campaign trail on Friday for a seat in the new council, Ms McInerney confirmed there has been little discussion locally about the outcome of the hush money trial.

“As long as we can maintain the relationship we have with them as a community, I don’t think there has been much talk about it, to be honest. We are more focused on how the golf club in Doonbeg is doing and how busy the season ahead will be. We don’t really focus on the politics side of the Trump organisation at all.”

The economic contribution of Trump Doonbeg to west Clare is underlined by the resort’s most recent accounts showing that it paid out €6.6 million in salaries and wages in 2022.

Two other locals, when approached, declined to comment on the Trump conviction.

Ms McInerney said: “The primary issues for us is making the resort a year-round business and protecting our coast and our dunes from coastal erosion. The political and legal side of the Trump organisation isn’t a priority for us, to be honest.”

When asked to comment on the court outcome, Fr Ger Kenny, co-parish priest for Doonbeg and other Clare parishes, said: “I don’t have a view on the politics of all of this – none whatsoever.”

He added: “The prism through which the Trump resort is viewed is always through the economic prism and what it is doing for the area.”

When asked to comment on the trial outcome, local publican Seóirse Comerford said: “I haven’t heard a whole about it and it wouldn’t be fair for me to be making comment on that.”

Asked did the trial receive much attention locally while it was in progress, Mr Comerford said: “I don’t know – look it, people in west Clare don’t get too bothered with what goes on in the wider world.”

Mr Comerford said that he took over the running of the pub from his aunt and uncle after Covid. “Truth be told, only for the hotel, the business would have closed.”

Busy preparing for the 25th Doonbeg International Jazz Festival this weekend, Mr Comerford said: “Without the hotel being up there, Doonbeg would be like all the other villages in west Clare – dying a death.”

He said: “It is the glue that is keeping the village together and extends the seasons until October every year and starts in March rather than the first weekend in June.”