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VILLAGEApril/May
T
HE news that bouffoned New York
billionaire Donald Trump has taken
over the troubled Doonbeg Golf Links
in West Clare, apparently for a snap-up price
of € million, has been greeted with mixed
feelings in Ireland. His second golf links in
Europe adds to a -course empire that
extends from California to Dubai.
The world-recognised Trump name and
brash management style is a fresh ingre-
dient to a diverse mix: the golfers who love
links courses and Doonbeg’s potential,
locals keen to see a hard-won local employer
stay in situ, a group of farmers with exclu-
sive access to a right of way, conservationists
concerned about a unique sand dune system,
wind-farm developers who want to build in
the area, surfers who won legal access to the
adjacent beach, and a near-microscopic snail
called Vertigo angustior that has a habit of
either making a mad nuisance of itself or
underscoring environmental diversity in
salt marsh and dune systems, depending
on your point of view.
As an unlikely ambassador for conserva-
tion, it is unfortunate for Vertigo that it has
often found itself pitted against developer
interests. Bertie Ahern famously indulged
in some rare alliteration when blaming cost
overruns on motorway projects on “swans,
snails and people hanging out of trees”.
Trump too has been dismissive of this
particular snail, stating it is found all over
the world and that it was originally believed
it was endemic to Doonbeg. The first part
of the statement is pretty true; the second
not so much. According to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Red List of Threatened Species, the snail is
found in , mostly European, countries but
is classed as ‘Near Threatened’. In Ireland,
its once-estimated wetland habitats
have been reduced in number over the past
decade.
Trump, however unwillingly, assumes the
mantle of protector of the dunes and of the
Doonbeg
ENVIRONMENT
Also in this section:
Michael Mann interview 62
George Monbiot 64
Climate change deniers 65
Paddy Woodworth book review 66
Tony Lowes on fish-farms 68
The bombastic billionaire and his wad arrive in
vulnerable Doonbeg. By Éibhir Mulqueen
Trump Dunes
April/May VILLAGE
snail, in line with the original planning per-
mission for the development and links
design by Greg Norman. He is now looking
for a redesign and may incorporate some of
the dunes in the course, which some golf-
ers find confusing to negotiate without a
caddy. “Even a poor caddy is worth it to get
you around with minimal frustration”, goes
one Tripadvisor comment.
Caddies in fact are a big part of the sum-
mer employment at the links, forming
around of up to staff working in the
hotel and golfing facilities. After the nearby
Moneypoint power station, it is the biggest
employer in an economically marginalised
area where, within living memory, shoes
were swapped between family members on
Sundays.
The Doonbeg links as a business came out
badly from the property bust – a receiver was
appointed following a € million pre-tax
loss in – but it has managed to capital-
ise on its footfall. It has an annual turnover
of over € million, with some weddings
a year adding to the golfing and hotel lettings
income. Model Glenda Gilson has added her
name for the forthcoming season to the tally
of celebrities settling on the resort for their
wedding receptions,
Unlike Trump’s other recent foray
into Europe – the purchase of lands
and subsequent development of a links
course in controversial circumstances
in Aberdeenshire – Doonbeg started as a
community initiative when members of the
local community development association
approached Shannon Development to mar-
ket the dunes system as a golf course. Back
in the pre-Celtic Tiger years, they viewed it
as a way of keeping some of the young people
in the area and reversing decades of emigra-
tion. Twelve years after the links came to
pass, this has been proven to be true even
if plenty of young people have decamped
abroad.
What is popularly known about Trump
in recent times has been garnered through
his appearances with his friend and ex-
CNN presenter, Piers Morgan, his brief
foray into US electoral politics in –
when he considered seeking the Republican
nomination, and his ignominious baiting
of Barack Obama to get him to produce his
long-form birth certificate (which he did).
But Trump has been on the US scene for a
long time. He has been doing property deals
since the late sixties. He built his place of
residence, Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue,
in , the Central Park ice rink shortly
afterwards, and was parodied as the epit-
ome of propertied wealth in the novel,
‘American Psycho’. He overcame bankruptcy
in the nineties and today has a string of resi-
dential, hotel and golf properties all with the
Trump signature name – and a net worth of
$. billion, according to Forbes.
More pertinent to Doonbeg is the con-
troversy in Scotland, his ancestral home
on his mother’s side, over his development
of a links in Aberdeenshire, his first foot-
hold in Europe. A BBC documentary, ‘You’ve
Been Trumped’, chronicles the works on the
environmentally protected site and his tus-
sle with local residents who objected to his
presence.
A blog on Doonbeg Community
Development Ltd’s website warns of what
is often perceived as an overbearing style of
intrusion. “The jobs are great but beware of
the cost and be prepared”.
At the moment, Trump must bear the
extra costs. Coastal erosion due to storms
has nibbled at the edge of the acre-site,
and fencing laid to protect the dune system
from the encroaching Atlantic has been
swept away. The operators have had tussles
with Clare County Council and the National
Parks and Wildlife Service, on how to work
out the next moves.
“I cannot say everybody always agrees but
we did not agree before Trump either”, says
managing director of the resort Joe Russell.
“We have lengthy meetings and agendas are
lengthy”.
The local community has welcomed the
latest development and the investment it
entails even if there are some fears that the
Doonbeg name is being lost to the Trump
name. The new name for the resort is
Trump International Golf Links and Hotel
Ireland.
“There is a need for a function room at
the hotel and maybe a swimming pool,
which would be marvellous”, says Doonbeg
Community Development chairman Willie
Hanrahan. “If it does increase the number
of people who come to the area, it is all to
the good”.
Trump has also found common cause with
locals in his opposition to wind farms. He
pulled back from a second development in
Scotland because an offshore wind farm is
going ahead. He is equally opposed to the
nine-turbine plan submitted at a site three
miles from his new acquisition. It is a scaled-
down version of a - turbine plan that was
rejected by An Bord Pleanála last year.
Russell points out that he had objected to
the wind farm applications even before the
Trump acquisition, saying they are unsuit-
able for an area that relies on scenic views
for tourism income and through which the
new Wild Atlantic Way runs.
“I have no objection to wind energy but it
has got to be carefully planned”.
He is bullish about the future, pointing out
that, since been given the title of European
Golf Resort of The Year by the International
Association of Golf Tour Operators in ,
the resort’s numbers have “soared”. Now a
ballroom, a swimming pool and a fitness
centre are being mooted to complete its five-
star quality.
“Donald Trump has expressed his inter-
est in getting the golf course back up and
running and making it one of the best in
the world. He is not a yes man. He is seen as
somebody who continues to challenge and
grow his own business. They have a fantastic
hotel collection and a fantastic golf collec-
tion. We are buying into all those channels
in relation to sales”.
The legal issues that bedevilled the devel-
opment in its early days have been resolved.
A few people resented the loss of access to
the magnificent beach. For generations,
farmers had used its sand for bedding, and
some people had even washed the salt out
and used it for building pur-
poses. Otherwise there was
some trampling and sliding on
the precious dunes system by
children. Walkers enjoyed the
beach but it was a big desert
for swimming for its treacher-
ous rip currents and undulating
surface. Then it was discovered
by a generation of surfers as an
exhilarating, isolated alterna-
tive to the bustle of Lahinch,
further up the coast.
Along with groups of farmers,
the surfers flexed their muscles when the
original American investors’ planning appli-
cation to build a links course was lodged.
The surfers, represented by the Lahinch-
based West Coast Surfing Club (WCSC), had
a pedestrian right of way at the th hole
upheld in the courts.
Cliodhna Fawl of the WCSC says members
hope to meet the new management in the
future to develop a working relationship. But
as far as the WCSC is concerned, the hard-
won right of way stands. “A right of way is a
right of way”, she says transcendently.
For the moment, even Vertigo Angustior
is holding up. In , its numbers were
reported to have increased to million
from million, underscoring a rare success
story for sensitive development and conser-
vation brought about by a court action by the
Friends of the Irish Environment. Whether
that delicate balance can be maintained,
and competing interests accommodated
will depend on how the future plans for the
course pan out. And the Donald. •
The jobs are
great but
beware of the
cost and be
prepared
“
