Donald Trump has announced that his ambassador to Ireland will be head of a New Jersey based construction firm Edward Walsh.

Bauer Media Political Correspondent Seán Defoe told The Anton Savage Show that Mr Walsh most likely met president-elect Trump through the property market scene.

“He heads up a construction company called the Walsh Group, they’re a national construction and services company,” he said.

“They’ve had some pretty big contracts with large hotel groups and others across the country.

“We can make a number of assumptions based on what we know about him – that Donald Trump most likely met him in this New Jersey property scene that he grew up in and made his millions in and made his name in as well.

“The two of them are both avid golfers as well – in fact, that was something Trump mentioned in his post on Truth Social, saying it always helps that your ambassador to Ireland be a champion golfer – so you can tell what his priorities were when he was thinking about that.”

Donald Trump golfing, 09-07-2012.PA Images/Alamy

Seán said that Mr Walsh likely has Irish heritage based on his surname.

“The second name Walsh being in New York, construction in New Jersey, most likely came over and he's a couple of generations removed from maybe his forefathers who worked their way up,” he said.

“Potentially a microcosm of the new Irish over there in a way, in that they probably started with very little and now are quite wealthy constructionists on that scene.”

Republican

Seán said it that Mr Walsh also has some connections to the Republican party.

“We know there’s a bit of money in the family,” he said.

“We know he has a college education – he went to Villanova – and we know that he has been involved in the Republican party.

“He was a delegate for the Republican National Convention a number of years ago, so you can frame a picture without knowing all the facts.”

'Frosty' relations

Seán said that if president-elect Trump decides to tax American companies operating out if Ireland, Government relations could become ‘frosty’.

“If he actually does go after particularly international tariffs and tariffs on European countries and others – that's going to pose a problem,” he said.

“Potentially the relationship between the Áras, the US ambassador in the Phoenix Park and Government buildings could be quite frosty – but look, overall, the Government has always understood that we need to have a relationship with the United States.

“It’s always been a fairly close relationship there and [an] incredibly important trading partner for us.

“I still think it’s an absolutely bonkers statistic that Ireland was the 9th largest exporter into the United States in 2023, which, for a country of our size, is absolutely amazing.”

Seán said it would be a ‘difficult’ relationship to maintain if the White House and the Irish Government did not see eye-to-eye.

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