Trump's other wall: Irish town is latest battleground
No doubt, taxpayers will be paying for secret service for his sons for a trip to Ireland soon!
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/europe/trump-ireland-wall/index.html
Trump's other wall: Irish town is latest battleground
Text and photos by Kara Fox, CNN
Video by Edward Kiernan, CNN
Updated 8:32 AM ET, Fri February 24, 2017
Doonbeg, Ireland (CNN)Donald Trump wants to build a wall. But it's not the one you're thinking of.
About 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from the US on the other side of the Atlantic, a familiar debate between local residents of an Irish town and environmental activists is in full swing.
Three years ago, Trump bought a golf course and resort in the rural village of Doonbeg, County Clare. Set along 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) of Ireland's Atlantic-swept coastline, the location is picture perfect, but it has one significant problem: erosion.
Trump International Golf Links Ireland sits on a fragile ecosystem of interlinked, rare sand dunes overlooking Doughmore Bay.
The course's 14th hole has eroded, with the 18th, 5th and 9th severely damaged in a series of unusually fierce storms in 2014.
Trump's solution? A coastal erosion wall to protect the golf course's sand dunes from being reclaimed by the sea.
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With up to a quarter of the village residents reliant on the jobs the golf course creates, many in Doonbeg say opposition comes from an environmental elite.
"We're not Trump fans or haters," local cow farmer John Flanagan told CNN. "It's got to do with the protection of our tidal bay. Which is worse? Ecology changing or no hills at all?"
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"Sand dunes are one of our best coastal defenses against frequencies and storms -- unless of course, you build a wall in front of them," Lowes said.
After a failed initial attempt to construct a barricade without a construction permit, Trump filed in May 2016 for permission to build a 2.5 kilometer-long wall (1.5 miles) running adjacent to a stretch of public beach. Local authorities filed a counter request citing environmental concerns and asking for clarification on 51 points.
Trump had six months to respond, but instead withdrew the application in early December 2016.
Later that month, when he was President-elect, Trump refiled a new application, which seeks permission to build two rock walls supported by sheet metal stretching along two opposite ends of the dunes, totaling 883 meters (0.5 miles.) A decision is due later this month.
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