Dublin - Protesters in Dublin on Thursday
hoisted the "Trump Baby" inflatable blimp that has become a
staple of rallies against the US president, who was due to
spend his second night in a row at a golf hotel he owns in
Ireland.
The six-metre high blimp, which depicts Donald Trump as a
snarling, diaper-wearing orange baby, was a rallying point for
thousands of anti-Trump protesters who packed central London on
Tuesday and tens of thousands who protested in the city against
a trip last year.
Organisers said they expected at least 1 500 to attend a
rally in Dublin later on Thursday, a day after Trump's sons Eric
and Donald Jr. received a rapturous reception from locals in the
town that adjoins Trump's golf course.
"It's global solidarity with resistance for progressive
politics," Shae Flanagan, 31, from the Uplift campaign
organisation, one of the groups organising the protest and the
flying of the blimp.
The blimp, which was transported by activists from London,
flew above Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, which is dedicated to
"all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom."
Passers-by stopped and took selfies with the blimp.
Trump's Irish visit, which came after a pomp-filled state
visit to the United Kingdom, has been relatively low key. Trump
and his wife Melania spent Wednesday night at his Trump
International Golf Club in Doonbeg on the west coast of Ireland.
They flew on Thursday to Normandy in France for the 75th
anniversary of the D-Day operation that helped bring World War
Two to an end, and then flew back to Ireland for a second night
in Doonbeg.
While Trump made no appearances open to the Irish public,
his sons toured the pubs in Doonbeg on Wednesday, buying drinks
for almost everyone in the village.