‘He does what his boss says’: Trump’s undiplomatic diplomat stirs it up for Maga in Ireland

Before Ed Walsh became American ambassador to Ireland last summer, he went before a confirmation hearing in the US senate foreign relations committee. His nomination was proposed by veteran republican senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of Donald Trump who died suddenly last weekend. “He is a very close friend to president Trump,” Graham said then of Walsh, a New Jersey businessman. “To our friends in Ireland, you are getting one of the closest friends that president Trump has, and that will benefit you because when Ed picks up the phone president Trump will answer.”READ MOREOne year after Walsh moved into the ambassador’s historic mansion at Deerfield in Phoenix Park, he has taken to his role as Trump’s man in Ireland with gusto. Donald Trump makes a video address to 4,000 guests attending the US independence day party hosted by ambassador Ed Walsh at his residence in Phoenix Park. Photograph: Paulo Nunes dos Santos “There’s an outward plausibility, but he doesn’t hold back in private in terms of his robust Trump rhetoric,” says a senior Dubliner who has met him in person. “There’s a very Trumpy presentation when you’re in one-to-one.” Walsh hosted no less than 4,000 guests for a July 1st party at the 62-acre residence to mark 250 years of US independence. In a video message to the throng, Trump said his ambassador was a “great golfer” and described Irish-Americans as integral to the American story. “They are rough and tough and smart,” Trump said of the Irish. On July 4th – the actual US independence day – Walsh hosted hundreds of family guests at the “spectacular” wedding in Deerfield of his daughter Anna and Pat Beljan. A slick Instagram film of the razzmatazz showed kilted drummers, marquee dancing, fireworks over the residence and jovial revellers enthusiastically enjoying abundant hospitality. In a post on Facebook, Walsh’s sister Kath described the festivities as “the coolest wedding ever”.The next day the ambassador was photographed at the Black Forge Inn in Drimnagh, Dublin, the pub and restaurant owned by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor. “Welcome back” said a message on the pub Facebook page, suggesting Walsh had been there before. McGregor is a Trump acolyte who brought his family into the White House on an infamous visit with the president in the Oval Office on St Patrick’s Day 2025. That was four short months after a High Court jury handed down a civil case ruling that the professional fighter raped Dublin woman Nikita Hand six years previously. Business partners abandoned McGregor yet Trump sailed on, seemingly unperturbed by the court findings against his guest. But the Black Forge visit was immediately seen as a major faux-pas by Walsh – an undiplomatic gesture that was bound to raise hackles.Dublin Rape Crisis Centre chief executive Rachel Morrogh was quick to criticise Walsh, saying the ambassador was “normalising and trivialising” sexual violence. “It was hugely disappointing to learn that the US government’s official representative in Ireland ... paid a visit to an establishment owned by a person who has been found civilly liable of rape,” she said. Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar was shocked, saying the ambassador had made a “big, big mistake”. “What messages does this send out to women? What messages does it send out to victims of rape and sexual assault?” he asked.The US embassy declined to comment, as did Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris when pressed on the matter by reporters. Still, there is no doubt the episode has led to a questioning of Walsh’s judgment in diplomatic circles. “It generated some controversy,” says one diplomatic figure. “It was a surprising decision to go particularly because the guy is under a cloud – it’s not as if we thought he was St Francis of Assisi,” the person adds, in reference to McGregor.Ed Walsh is the great-great grandson of Co Clare emigrants. Photograph: Dan Dennison “This guy was involved in an appalling series of actions against a vulnerable woman – that would have been the big reaction.”At the same time, the Walsh visit was seen against the backdrop of Trump efforts to export his Make America Great Again (Maga) outlook. This week the US state department started a new initiative to provide funding up to $3 million (€2.6 million) to promote “civilisational bonds” with like-minded movements in Europe that share its views on national sovereignty, mass migration and censorship.“This clearly has Maga written all over it,” the diplomatic figure says of the Black Forge Inn visit. He goes on to note Trump’s long-term friendship with Dana White, the chief of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the group behind the mixed martial arts bout held on the White House lawn in June. McGregor has no political base to speak of and failed last year to secure any expressions of support from Oireachtas members or county councils before halting his putative bid to contest the presidential election.[ A Trump speech attacking ‘our election infrastructure’ sets alarm bells ringingOpens in new window ]Still, his disputed claims about Ireland “potentially losing its Irishness” chime in some way with Trump’s view that Europe is facing “civilisational erasure”. Walsh was notably present in January at a political conference hosted by Eddie Hobbs, the financial adviser-turned-campaigner, who said people seeking a new Irish government to cut immigration should seek help from the Maga movement. In turn, Hobbs was among thousands gathered at Deerfield on July 1st. This was hardly a surprise. “According to himself, he can pick out Trump-haters here,” says a close observer of the ambassador. The same goes for Trump’s Irish aficionados. But who is Ed Walsh? What brought him to Ireland? What are his connections to Trump? And what else has he been saying since taking up his prestigious post? Edward Sharp Walsh, the great-great grandson of Co Clare emigrants, is founder of a New Jersey construction and real estate business. He established the Walsh Company from the basement of his home in 2003, with seven staff. He sold that business for an undisclosed sum in 2012 to Canadian group Avison Young, staying with the buyer until 2018. He relaunched the Walsh-named business in 2019 and remains its owner.Ed Walsh on stage with his wife Lynn. Photograph: Dan Dennison “An avid golfer, he is a member of Trump National Bedminster, where he has won six club championships,” says his embassy biography, referring to the president’s private golf club in New Jersey. For all that, the ambassador’s original political links were with former New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Walsh served two terms under Christie as chairman of the state school development body. He was among 60 local business chiefs on Christie’s finance team in his failed bid for the republican nomination in the 2016 US election, when Trump won his first White House term. The fundraising group – led by members of Christie’s inner circle, spanning “developers and life sciences CEOs to attorneys and utility executives” – was described as a “who’s who” of New Jersey business.[ Neither Martin nor Harris dared rebuke the US ambassador. Varadkar had no such qualmsOpens in new window ]Christie later became an ally of Trump but is now a unrepentant foe of the president, recently describing him as “undisciplined, immature and narcissistic” but not “stupid’.By contrast, Walsh’s political support for Trump and fealty to him is by now well-established. “He clearly does what his boss says,” notes the diplomatic figure. He has also contributed financially to the Trump machine. Federal Election Commission records show he gave $13,200 to Trump campaign committees over five donations in 2024 – far above his $364 donation to the campaign of Robert F Kennedy jnr, now Trump’s health secretary. Trump nominated Walsh as ambassador designate in December 2024, the month before his second term began, describing him as a “great philanthropist in his local community”. President Catherine Connolly meeting US ambassador Ed Walsh at Áras an Uachtaráin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill He was sworn in by US secretary of state Marco Rubio in the Oval Office in June 2025 and presented his credentials the next month to then president Michael D Higgins. “I am truly grateful to my friend, president Donald J Trump, for his trust in me,” he said at a ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin. Higgins was succeeded in October by Catherine Connolly, an avowed critic of US foreign policy. Walsh, Connolly’s near neighbour in Phoenix Park, made clear his own assessment of the new President when interviewed in the Sunday Times in June, saying her views were “not really very relevant, because she doesn’t have much of a say anyway”. Many in Irish politics have uttered forthright and dismissive words about Trump as leader of the US. Still, the ambassador’s remarks about Connolly were far from diplomatic nicety. “I wish she was pro-Ireland at some point,” he said. That same day in the Sunday Independent, Walsh expressed surprise at the extent of demands for action from the Government to tackle housing and health problems: “In the United States, we do a lot of things differently.” He also hit out at “shocking” levels of business paperwork at EU level: “We don’t have the regulations that you guys have here.”[ Edward Walsh: Ireland’s future is to be a bridge and interpreter between US and EuropeOpens in new window ]This is not exactly the silken public talk of a diplomat, although some in Dublin say the candour is a refreshing departure from previous platitudes. “I’ve seen him in action at a close quarters in the public domain,” says Danny McCoy, chief of business lobby group Ibec. “He comes across as authentic and respectful of Ireland’s now significant global position – which should be open to taking criticism from our international partners – as opposed to the somewhat sycophantic and patronising positions of the past.” Still, others who have met Walsh directly say he is at one with fellow Trumpites who see grave existential threats to liberty everywhere in Europe because of “socialism” and are not keen on actual political discussion. “He’s kind of arrogant,” says an individual who has sat in a room with the ambassador. “You could have a conversation with him but there wouldn’t be an exchange where there would be a back and forth, where Walsh might respond to a different point of view. He’s least likely to say: ‘Well what do you think?’”[ Will Donald Trump get a bigger Irish welcome than Ronald Reagan?Opens in new window ]Another person, familiar with US custom, says Trump predecessors have tended to send “genial types” to Ireland as ambassador and “not hard-chargers”.Walsh is not quite a wolf-warrior diplomat in the mould of a combative Chinese envoy but he is making a mark in ways that have Irish leaders wondering about what he might say or do next. With planning already under way for Trump to visit Ireland in September, more will be heard from his singular ambassador.