Open Championship at Dublin's Portmarnock remains firmly on the cards as feasibility work continues
"First one would say is that I've got one venue on my mind this week and it's Portrush, given it is my first Open Championship, and looking forward to delivering what we hope will be a successful event," explained Mr Darbon, who said in April that the R&A was "really optimistic" about the prospect of hosting The Open in Dublin.
"Yes, we are thinking about Portmarnock. We think it's a wonderful links golf course, and we've been really encouraged by the support that we've had in principle from the Irish government to work with us to understand whether we can stage an Open Championship there in the future.
"We're knee-deep in the feasibility work to help us answer that question fully. We expect to have a clearer picture by the back end of this year."
A crowd of 278,000 is expected at Royal Portrush this week, which is the biggest attendance at an Open held outside St Andrews.
However, whether Turnberry returns to the rota while Trump is in power remains to be seen, as a decision on the 2028 staging is still to be made.
"I think we've been extremely clear on our position, as in respect of Turnbury," Mr Darbon explained. "We love the golf course, but we've got some big logistical challenges there. You see the scale of the setup here, and we've some work to do on the road, rail, and accommodation structure around Turnberry, and we've explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues.
"But we need to address those logistical challenges."
Mr Darbon's predecessor, Martin Slumbers, said last November that the Trump issue was central to the R&A's decision.
"We will not be taking any events there until we are comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf," Slumbers said.
"That situation is something we're still not comfortable with at the moment, but that could evolve in the coming years."
Asked about those remarks and whether Trump's presence in the White House was relevant to their decision, Mr Darbon said: "It's a somewhat hypothetical question in there. Unless we address the logistical challenges, it's difficult for us to go back.
"I met a couple of months ago with Eric Trump and some of the leadership from the Trump Golf organisation and from Turnberry.
"We had a really good discussion. I think they understand clearly where we're coming from. We talked through some of the challenges that we have, so we've got a good dialogue."
As for Muirfield, which hasn't hosted The Open since 2013, Mr Darbon explained that there were logistical challenges there too.
"We love the golf course at Muirfield," he said. "We're in a discussion with the venue right now.
"There's some things that we need to evolve at Muirfield — the practice ground, in particular, is a challenge for us to host the modern Open, and this is work we need to do, and if they need to facilitate some of the infrastructure that we require decent cabling to enable the scale of the production that we have these days.
"But it's good dialogue, and we'd love to be back here in the future. As I've said, no, it's not just about a number of fans, but there are some other things that go into staging the championships, practice ground and the wider infrastructure."
As for LIV Golf's reapplication for Official World Ranking points, Mr Darbon confirmed that it was being studied by the OWGR technical group, but he had not examined in detail the changes proposed by the Saudi-funded league to improve its chances of being awarded points.
"We actually had an OWGR board meeting yesterday," he said. "An application has been received. I think that's a good thing.
"There's a robust process that now exists. The bid will be assessed by the technical committee and then ultimately determined by the board.
"I think Trevor Immelman (Chairman of the OWGR) released a statement regarding that recently, and I'm sure he'll talk about that in more detail to come.
"I haven't reviewed the technical submission in any detail. That's the process that we'll go through now, so difficult (to say what's being proposed by LIV).'
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The Irish Sun
6 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
My chat with young lad in Warsaw hit home grim reality of war in Ukraine – how can Ireland be neutral in face of Putin?
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Irish Times
6 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Epstein files are a new crisis for Donald Trump, as supporters blowtorch their Maga caps
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At lunchtime on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that president Trump will make a visit to Turnberry, his golf course in Scotland, all the better to blow the cobwebs away and cement the budding US-UK trade agreement through a sit down with Keir Starmer. READ MORE In the same briefing, it was revealed that President Trump had undergone testing for swelling in his lower legs. A recently published photograph of his visibly swollen ankles had provoked a predictable fever of online speculation. Yes, he had vascular swelling. No, it did not impact his ability to travel or to work. The series of events was the latest attempt by the White House to quell or detract from the internal revolt in a week that saw Trump lose his grip on both the credulity and loyalty of a significant percentage of his most fervent support base. Throughout last year's riotous election, Trump thrived on instinct rather than long-term strategy, slaloming through the legal travails of last spring before seeing off Joe Biden, emerging unscathed from an assassination attempt and ultimately defeating Kamala Harris in the November election. He may have been generally aware that many of his key administration picks – including his vice-president JD Vance, his FBI director Kash Patel, the assistant director Dan Bongino – had, along with an assortment of prominent Maga voices, repeatedly and vociferously called for the release of the Epstein files during the Biden presidency. At that time, it was good sport to stoke the conspiracy theory that, within the investigation documents on Epstein, the wealthy financier with a murky past who took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial, was proof of the Q-Anon whispers of a deep state paedophile ring and a bombshell client list of showbiz and political elites. Nobody close to Trump stopped to consider the consequences of his administration declining to make the files public, as promised. Last weekend, the subject dominated the Turning Point young conservative conference in Tampa. The consternation prompted a 400-word Truth Social post from Trump, an exhortation to read from the same hymn sheet. 'We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it's Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.' It was a classic Trump play: to audaciously flip an accusation into a counteraccusation, suddenly presenting the documents his support base believe would incriminate the Democratic elites as having been concocted by those same elites. For once, his audience was sceptical. The heavyweight Maga-sphere show hosts – Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk – were aghast. Several prominent Republicans, including House speaker Mike Johnson, expressed their belief that the files should be released. By Wednesday, Trump was out of patience, firing out an embittered post blaming some Republicans for their gullibility at falling for yet another Democratic scam. 'Let those weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success because I don't want their support any more.' One of the inarticulable mysteries about Donald Trump's political revolution concerns the question of how a quintessential 1980s new-money New York businessman, with no interest or in-depth travel experience through the US interior, somehow intuited the various vulnerabilities and dissatisfactions of disillusioned and disenfranchised people across those states, found the right words and messaging to reach them and transformed their grievances and wishes into an ultraloyal movement at lightning speed. It was his separating quality and for the past decade, he has been above their reproach. Although much of the blame for keeping the Epstein files under wraps has been focused on Pam Bondi, deep down even the staunchest of Trump loyalists know that if the president wanted the documents released, they would be released. More troubling is the prospect that there is nothing there to release: that Vance and company had been cheerfully toying with their belief system in demanding full disclosure on the Epstein findings. And the least palatable alternative is that there is something within the documents that Trump does not want to enter the public domain. A March NBC poll found that 36 per cent of all registered US voters considered themselves to be Maga supporters – almost a 10 per cent jump in a year. Seventy-one per cent of all Republicans now identify with Maga Republicanism since Trump's re-election. To many among this number, the reversal on the Epstein files represents a breach of covenant. The Republican administration's belief system may be entirely malleable but one of the characteristics of the Maga movement is that its disciples are devout. A collective desperation for someone with a cohesive message was precisely what Trump sensed when he began to harness those disparate energies while promising to restore to their lives whatever those Americans believed themselves to have lost. Labelling the Democrats as responsible for the border crisis, for the scourge of immigration, for inflation, for wokeism and elitism, for abandoning their cities and towns: all made for riveting and effective political theatre. The Epstein files resided as a kind of vague gift that would someday be presented to them. What Trump underestimated was just how wedded his base are to a conspiracy theory that he may well privately consider daft. Now, he has called them 'stupid'. He has let them down. Trump has, over his lifetime, proven himself to be darkly brilliant at turning potential foes into allies – not least with his conversion of one-time Democratic aristocracy Robert F Kennedy Jr into an election prop and Republican cabinet member. 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By Thursday night, Trump had returned to Truth Social promising to sue Rupert Murdoch and his publication the Wall Street Journal for reporting on an apparent birthday note from Trump to Epstein which, Trump stressed, he warned them was fake. Then came the volte-face, the news that Trump had directed Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury testimony relating to Epstein's sex-trafficking case. The president said on Truth Social he had authorised the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, citing 'the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein'. All the while, the old photographs of Epstein and Trump together in happier times are out there, recirculating on the social media streams. There is scarcely an image where Jeffrey Epstein is not smirking.
Irish Independent
8 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Bellew Group acquire leading Wexford electrical wholesaler
EEW has been an electrical giant since its establishment in 1979 in Enniscorthy by its founder Tom Byrne. An independent owned company, it opened eight branches across the South-East of Ireland and employs over 60 people across 11 branches nationwide. For decades they have been providing goods and services to many key markets including; electrical contractors, local authorities, schools and colleges, as well as hospitals, M&E services, retail and leisure, utilities, pharmaceuticals, resellers, distributors and OEM'S. 'EEW is very well-run by Tom and his team, and the business is very well-respected in the industry,' said Ollie Bellew, CEO of Bellew Group. The Bellew Group is a leading Irish electrical wholesale and supply company formed by the union of Bellew Electrical, Wesco Electrical, and Cable and Accessories. It is focused on providing high-quality electrical components to professionals across the country. "We're thrilled to welcome EEW Ltd as part of the Bellew Group. This partnership marks a significant step forward in our journey as we continue to grow and invest in the future,' said Mr Bellew. A representative from the Bellew Group commended EEW for flourishing as a family-run business. 'Like us, EEW is a family-run business with shared values, a strong culture, and a commitment to excellence. While both companies will remain independently run, this collaboration opens the door for greater innovation, long term stability, and new opportunities across the group,' they said. Commenting on the acquisition, EEW founder Tom Byrne said: 'EEW takes pride in its personal service, deep customer relationships, and local knowledge. 'Joining the Bellew Group is the right next step for the future of our business. I'm proud of what we've built and excited to see it grow even further with Ollie and the Bellew Group.' This deal comes after the Bellew Group acquired investment from Waterland Ireland in 2024 to support strategy across Ireland. 'We're delighted to support Bellew Electrical as it continues to scale through smart, strategic acquisitions,' said Laura Dillon, Partner at Waterland Ireland. 'EEW is a strong cultural and commercial fit, and this deal reflects the momentum Bellew is building as a market leader in the sector." Following this acquisition, Bellew Group's total workforce is estimated to include more than 220 employees operating from 27 branches, with a combined annual revenues exceeding €100 million.
