Paisley Wants Trump

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Paisley Wants Trump

December 5, 2007

By Barry McCaffrey

REAL estate mogul Donald Trump was this week urged to consider relocating plans for a multi billion-dollar golf course to Northern Ireland after being dramatically snubbed by his ancestral cousins in Scotland.

Earlier this week Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland voted to oppose Trump’s plans to build a $2 billion golf course along the stunning sand dunes at Menie Estate in north east Scotland.

The Trump International Links would have included two championship golf courses, a 450 room five-star hotel and a state of-the-art golf academy.

However, it was Trump’s plans to build 36 luxury golf lodges, as well as an additional 950 holiday homes with sea views of the stunning Scottish coastline which led to opposition from Scottish politicians.

The New York billionaire had originally purchased the 1,400 acre site in 2006 as the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to invest in the Scottish birthplace of his mother Mary MacLeod.

MacLeod had immigrated to America when she was 20, eventually settling in New York where she married Fred Trump.

However, Trump’s boyhood dreams were dealt a severe blow when local Scottish councilors voted against the proposed golf development on the grounds that it could potentially endanger wildlife in the area.

A spokeswoman for Trump admitted that the New York businessman had been “very surprised” that his billion-dollar plan to invest in Scotland had been snubbed.

“We are considering an appeal, and also considering doing something very spectacular in another location.”

Trump was urged to consider relocating his golf course plans a few miles across the Irish Sea.

The Co. Derry coastline already boasts a number of award winning golf courses, including Royal Portrush, regarded as one of the best courses in Europe.

First Minister Ian Paisley, in New York this week on a business trip with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, said he would support a Trump development in the North, and plans were afoot on Tuesday for Trump and Paisley to at least speak on the phone about the possibility.

“We have put the calls out that we are willing to talk to him,” Paisley said on Tuesday.

“Of course we welcome any one who wants to invest in Northern Ireland and who has an interest, in creating jobs, making money and developing our tourist industry.”

Local SDLP assembly member John Dallat said that Scotland’s loss could be Ireland’s gain.

“If they have snubbed Donald Trump in Scotland we have no problems offering him a Cead Mile Failte (100,000 welcomes) in Ireland where we would be more than willing to work with him,” said Dallat.

“Donald’s mother Mary was a fluent Gaelic speaker from the island of Stornaway and there has always been strong links between Scotland and Ireland.

“I will be writing to Mr. Trump in the next few weeks to offer Co. Derry as a suitable location and to invite him here to view our splendid countryside for himself.”

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