The protests have been called for less than 24 hours since Trump’s visit was announced.
On Friday night, it was confirmed that while US President Donald Trump was in Europe to participate in a November 11 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, he would also will visit Ireland to renew the deep and historic ties between the two nations.
Almost immediately following the announcement, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney tweeted: “President Trump will visit Ireland in November. The US President is always welcome in Ireland. Our two countries have such strong historic, economic, cultural and family ties. Maintaining those connections is always a top priority.”
In the hours that followed, it quite quickly became clear, as Coveney’s tweet received over 1,300 responses and counting, the vast majority of them overwhelmingly negative, that the Tánaiste was not speaking on behalf of the entire Irish population.
On Saturday, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan released a statement saying: “We’re calling on Irish people to tell our Government to cancel this visit; and for them to demonstrate in never-before-seen numbers should they fail to do so.
“Show [your] disgust and rejection of the Trump administration’s policies by turning out, as we did during the Iraq War in 2003, in large-scale mass protest around the country.”
Workers’ Party Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan said Varadkar and Coveney were not representing the views of the majority of Irish people in extending the welcome:
“The deep and abiding connection between this country and the United States is based, not on the fawning and false obsequiousness of the Taoiseach and Minister Coveney, but on the shared experiences of our peoples and their common struggles.”
Additionally, Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin has said that there should be no welcome for US President, and the party tweeted out the following succinct message:
We are an open and tolerant nation. Trump’s values are not our values, and there should be no welcome mat laid out for a man of his world-view. #TrumpInIreland pic.twitter.com/uCVxdMbhOf
— The Labour Party (@labour) September 1, 2018
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