Staff and children of Clohanes NS met with US President, Donald Trump during a round of golf in Doonbeg this afternoon.

While media were tipped off that First Lady, Melania Trump would be visiting Doonbeg NS, it was in fact Clohanes NS students that made acquaintance with a resident of the White House. As Donald Trump was playing golf at Doonbeg, 27 school children posed for photos with him on the ninth hole.

Speaking in West Clare, Principal of Clohanes NS, Aideen O’Mahony admitted it was “a very exciting morning” for students and staff. “We kind of got wind that the president would be playing all 18 holes. The ninth hole is just adjacent to my parent’s land – I’m local here. We decided to take the children to the hillside near the ninth green”.

“All the children were there, we had our flags and they were waiting patiently. As he was coming up the ninth fairway, he waved to the children and we were waiting on the hillside, and then one of the secret service came over to us and said ‘the president would like to meet the teachers’. There were four members of staff there, so the four of us went up on to the tee box and he shook hands with us and he spoke to us.”

As the children waited on the hillside, Mr Trump approached them and shook hands with them, taking photographs and listened to them sing a verse of My Lovely Rose of Clare. “It was totally unexpected, it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t organised. We just decided to take it upon ourselves to go to the hillside and see him from a distance and wave a flag,” O’Mahony added.