Protesters insist Donald Trump is not welcome in Ireland

The Donald Trump baby blimp is expected to fly over the skies of Dublin at the largest of the demonstrations during the visit of the US President.

Mr Trump and his wife Melania arrived in the UK on Monday morning.

They were officially welcomed by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

The couple are due to arrive in Ireland on Wednesday following their three-day state visit to the UK.

They will stay at Mr Trump’s hotel and golf resort at Doonbeg in Co Clare.

The visit has prompted protests to be organised across Ireland.

The Stop Trump Ireland coalition will stage a national protest in Dublin on Thursday at the Garden of Remembrance.

On Tuesday evening, Together Against Trump will hold an outdoor event on Eyre Square in Galway and on Wednesday at Shannon airport a Shannonwatch peace camp will be erected for the duration of Mr Trump’s stay in Ireland.

In Belfast, a protest will take place at the City Hall on Tuesday organised by the ExAct group of US residents living in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, a petition with 100,000 signatures will be delivered to Doonbeg by Friends of the Irish Environment in opposition to the construction of a coastal defence at the golf course.

Launching the planned protests outside the Irish Parliament on Monday, Memet Uludag, convener of Stop Trump Ireland, said they are exercising their democratic right.

“We are sending a simple message that Donald Trump and his toxic views are not welcome in Ireland,” he said.

“We are using our democratic right to object to his visit, and we would like to say there is a different Ireland which is not in agreement with what Trump represents globally.

“I think there is a very significant opposition to Trump’s visits from a very broad nature of people opposing his views and what he represents, and this is not protesting against the American people, today we saw American people actually joining with us in this photo call.

“We stand in solidarity with American women, Black Lives Matter, with the Me Too campaign, with the Mexicans who are separated from their children at the border.”

Mr Uludag said he expects thousands to turn out at anti-Trump protests across the island of Ireland.

“There will be a protest in Shannon between 6-8pm, there are also events in Galway, Cork, Sligo, Derry and Belfast but we think Dublin will be the biggest event and we are expecting 4-6,000 people at that,” he said.

Fatin Al Tamimi, chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will be among the protesters taking part in demonstrations in Ireland.

“We are protesting at Trump’s visit here, we are saying he is not welcome,” she said.

“Hopefully as many people as possible will show up to say no to Trump.

“He is not welcome in Ireland, the Irish Government shouldn’t have invited him because he is a racist, a misogynist, Islamophobe, and an Apartheid supporter in Palestine.

“Many groups and people have united in Ireland in their opposition to Trump.”

John Molyneux, secretary of the Irish Anti-War Movement, was also among the protesters.

“I feel really passionately against Donald Trump’s visit to Ireland, Ireland is a wonderful country with a great tradition of resisting imperial oppression and I see Trump as the number one imperial oppressor in the world today so I really hope the Irish people come out and show that he is not welcome here.”

Mr Trump will hold a bilateral meeting with Irish premier Leo Varadkar at Shannon Airport during his visit.

Last week, Mr Varadkar told the Dail parliament that he was looking forward to discussing free trade with the US president.

Mr Trump had been due to visit Ireland last November but the trip was postponed due to operational reasons.

He will also attend events in France to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.