Over four years ago, the Mayo island of Inishturk was inundated with inquiries after the word went out that it was offering a safe haven for North Americans who had not voted for Donald Trump.
Now, even Mr Trump himself might find it hard to find refuge on the island, as all its available rented property is booked out.
US citizens did not take up the island’s reported offer in 2016, which had prompted visits from an American network film crew and calls from The New York Times and CNN.
German families
However, several German families have moved there over the past year, ensuring the one island-born child on the primary school roll has company.
The “Trump refuge” torch was lit back in Spring 2016 when the island campaigned for more pupils for its primary school.
It advertised its “excellent broadband”, and a mixed fishing and farming economy – along with 12 weekly ferry crossings on the 14.5km transit between it and Roonagh, Co Mayo.
Inishturk community development co-ordinator Mary Helena O’Toole says the island has “moved on from all that now”, and there is no available rented property anyway.
Good tourist season
The island had a very good tourist season this year, in spite of guesthouses being closed due to Covid-19. she says
"I think a lot of people discovered our island for the first time during day trips, and loved the environment, "she says.
One of the new German residents, Irena Meilick, is delighted with the move that she and her husband Bruno made to the island from Bavaria.
Her husband is a web designer, and can work remotely, and the eldest of their four boys is at the primary school. A second German family has three children at the school.
“I think what the island needs is children, and I hope more islanders who have left move back and rear their families here,” she says.
Joe Biden connections
While Inishturk’s mainland county of Mayo has welcomed the election of Joe Biden – great-great-great-grandson of Famine emigrant Edward Blewitt - south Connemara has also issued its own good wishes to his campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon (44).
Ms O’Malley Dillon has connections with Tír an Fhia in Co Galway, where her great grandparents John O’Malley and Bríd Ní Chonghaile came from.
John Bhaba Jeaic Ó Conghaile, director of Ionad Oidhreachta Leitir Mealláin – the Lettermullen Heritage Centre, with a strong maritime dimension – has congratulated her on the success of her campaign.