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Thousands of protesters on Dublin streets as US President Donald Trump arrived in Ireland
On Saturday, several thousand people marched to the Dáil in protest of US President Donald Trump’s private visit to Ireland for the Irish Open golf tournament in Doonbeg, County Clare. The protest was organized by the Irish Neutrality League, and had presence from over 30 organizations. Also present were teams of legal observers from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
According to a recent Sunday Independent poll, nearly 69% of Irish people did not support Trump’s visit to Ireland. On signs made of recycled cardboard and old Connolly for President campaign posters, highlighting the American President’s connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and lambasting the conduct of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary group. With some using fishing poles as flagpoles, people from across the country flew the flags of Ireland, Iran, Palestine, and Greenland, all steadfast in their opposition to Donald Trump, and especially his visit to Ireland. Activists accentuated Dublin’s skyline with balloons depicting a fully suited Trump depicted in sexually explicit positions with facsimiles of Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. Chants included “Trump is a pedophile”, “our neutrality not for sale”, and “Donald Trump, you can’t hide; you’re commiting genocide!”
Among the diverse crowd, UCD students voiced their disappointment. When asked what drew him to the event, UCD student Cian McRory said, “It’s just to show solidarity with the international community. We won’t stand for the oppressive manners that Trump has been pushing onto Iran, or the support for an apartheid, genocidal state. We are together in this fight against authoritarianism.” McRory, who is originally from Belfast but grew up in the US, holds that “the current Irish government won’t bite the hand that feeds it”, and that it will take a “different kind” of government to oppose “the threat that is the United States”.
UCD student Eileen Conway, from New Jersey, offered her thoughts on Trump’s trip: “I just think
there are a lot more important things that he should be doing right now than coming to Ireland for a golf tournament, especially the day after 9/11[...] he’s the first president not to go Ground Zero on 9/11. It shows where his priorities are.”
“We came here to get away from him, and he followed us.”
When asked about what course of action her fellow Americans should be taking in regards to the current state of affairs, Eileen urged her nation to: “Vote. Vote in midterm elections. It is important that we take back the legislative branch and we are able to block him as much as we can. If you are abroad, make sure that you apply for your mail-in ballot or vote by email. You can find all the resources online [...] We need to fight power with power.”
March to the Dáil
The march of thousands shut down Dublin city centre. Upon arrival at Molesworth Street, Irish Neutrality League Chair Sara O’Rourke directed the audience in chants and introduced the panel set to speak to the thousands gathered. Speakers from political parties were People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire, Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger, Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stevenson, Labour TD Ciarán Ahern, and Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins.
“This is horror. This is the definition of horror and barbarism”, Barrett said of Trump’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and Senator Higgins proclaimed “solidarity with the amazing American people” protesting Trump in the US. During the speeches, masked activists set off several firecrackers and threw a flare. Action for Palestine Ireland later claimed responsibility for the stunt.
Activist speakers included Irish Neutrality League chair Sara O’Rourke, Dublin activist and musician Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin (PBP), marriage equality activist Ailbhe Smyth (“she’s a UCD woman herself”, a protester adamantly told us), and Extinction Rebellion representative Thomas Morelli. Mothers Against Genocide (MAG), the female-led protest organisation founded in Ireland in Oct. 2023, played a leading role in the march and subsequent speeches outside the Dáil. Twenty MAG members took the stage to perform their 2025 single, “A Mother’s Heart for Palestine”. On stage, activists played a rendition of “All You Fascist Bound to Lose” by Woody Guthrie.
One notable speaker was Abdullah Al-Jazar, a university student from Gaza who has been living in Ireland for one year. Al-Jazar spoke about his experience of leaving occupied Palestine to study in Ireland, as well as the difficulties faced by his family members who remain trapped in Palestine. Al-Jazar invited the crowd to think about his younger brother, Noor, who has been missing since the Israeli bombing of Rafah in May 2025: “When we say ‘no murderers’, we say ‘Where is Noor?’”. Al-Jazar’s story inspired chants of “Let them study” by the crowd, referring to the Palestinian students who have been denied student visas to study in Irish universities. According to figures released in August by the Universities of Sanctuary initiative, at least 31 of the 59 Palestinian students who applied for study visas to Irish third level institutions this year were refused permission to enter Ireland—despite securing fully or partially-funded scholarships.
A common theme among all speakers was the contrast between the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition government’s willingness to “roll out the red carpet” for Trump, despite the US President’s policy record which many hold to be directly opposed to the interests of the Irish people—as well as what they referred to as his illegal attempts to disrupt the democratic institutions of the US.
The Irish government's reception of Trump arrives in light of fuel price increases; Bord Gáis announced this week that they intend to increase their household energy prices by 10%, one of many consumer energy providers to announce such an increase in recent months. Many speakers claimed that Trump’s pro-fracking energy policy and climate change denialism would not increase the energy supply as he claims, and would instead only serve to further hasten global warming. Instead of working to mitigate these consumer price increases the government is spending its time greeting Trump during a private visit.