UPDATE 2:
The Irish tricolor over Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament.
The Irish show no signs of animosity toward Americans because of Trump’s tariffs, at least in two days since since I arrived in Dublin. “From Washington DC, then? Well, ye must need a hug,” smiled a friendly usher at St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral.
The Irish Times on Sunday headlined “Mass anti-Trump protests in US cities see Americans express their fear and loathing.” US correspondent Keith Duggan, described Saturday’s nationwide protests as “the first true attempt at a cohesive, national protest voice against the radical agenda of President Trump’s administration since the election.”
Cliff Taylor, one of the paper’s economics writers, warns that Trump’s April 2 tariff announce is a significant turning point. He continued:
Trump’s policies are not an outlier, but a continuation of a protectionist trend in US politics stretching back to his first term – and evident to a greater or lesser extent elsewhere in the world. The US has changed, and this is important for a country such as Ireland, which has hitched its economic wagon to it. And the old world trade order is being upended … The Irish economy is now going to slow noticeably. Uncertainty has a cost, creating a kind of economic paralysis.
And these are the early days.
UPDATE 1:
It’s too soon to fully detail how the Trump tariff’s will impact Ireland. But our Dublin airport taxi driver groaned when I mentioned our flight from Washington, D.C., was only half full. The cabbie has been watching a key economic indicator in his rear view mirror: foreign visitors to Ireland declined 12.2 percent in December 2024 compared to December 2023; fell 25 percent in January, compared to January 2024, and dropped 30 percent in February compared to the same month last year.
These post-Trump election, pre-tariff announcement figures can not yet be considered a trend. But it will be worth watching to see if the tourist decline continues as the weather warms and tariffs hit US and other travelers. The data comes from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office. March figures will not be available until late April.
The General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street in Dublin, epicenter of the 1916 Easter Rising. 4 April 2025.
ORIGINAL POST:
US President Donald Trump has launched a global trade war, with a 20 percent tariff set to hit the European Union, including the Republic of Ireland, while only the 10 percent base rate applies to the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. The 10 percent tariff difference on the island of Ireland–the only land border between the EU and the UK–is likely to add to the headaches already caused by Brexit. And I mean political as well as economic troubles.
During my November visit to Ireland, a few days after the US elections, the Irish Times headlined “Trump victory thrusts America into the unknown.” I wrote this piece saying, “Trump’s win not not only thrusts America into the unknown, but also Ireland and the rest of Europe and the world.” Now, Trump-fueled global turmoil is being supercharged.
As it turns out, I will be traveling in Ireland over the next 10 days, with stops in Dublin, Donegal, and Kerry. I will report on how the Irish view Trump’s disruption to global trade, in addition to his gutting of US government agencies and assaults on universities, cultural institutions, private business, and other organizations and aspects of American life. Email subscribers should check the website for updates to this post, or watch for new pieces delivered to your inbox. MH