#CoastalNotes - Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has arrived in Ireland amid much pomp and circumstance, promising "hundreds" of jobs in Co Clare, according to TheJournal.ie.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Trump purchased the former Doonbeg Lodge and Golf Club on the Clare coast for a bargain €15 million after it went into receivership in January during the extraordinary stormy winter.
Subsequently the US Apprentice host became embroiled in a brouhaha over the fate of an endangered snail species that lives on the property, after he sent in lorry-loads of rock armour to shore up coastal defences without the requisite planning permission.
This morning (Monday 12 May) Trump arrived at Shannon Airport to a red carpet welcome, complete with a harpist, fiddle player and singer to play his alighting from his personal branded aircraft, before meeting Finance Minister Michael Noonan and local dignitaries.
On the agenda for the next three days will be Trump's ambitious plans for the golf resort, including the addition of a "truly great ballroom" that would "generate a lot of jobs".
He also pledged to work with environmentalists over the habitat of the narrow-mouth whorl snail - though dismissed claims that the tiny mollusc was unique to Doonbeg.
TheJournal.ie has much more on the story HERE.