#NatureTrumpedWalls. “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.”
A few months ago, a petition showed up on the internet to stop Trump from building a wall. Nope, not the wall you’re thinking of. This one was going to be in western Ireland, on Doughmore Beach. Everyone was pissed because the wall was going to be made from 200,000 tons of boulders and stretch nearly two miles along Doughmore’s beach. At almost 20 feet high and 100 feet wide, it would’ve destroyed a vast portion of the beach and a few really good waves. The petition got over 100,000 signatures and, unlike most petitions, appears to actually have done some good (apart from making the people who sign them feel as though they’ve done some good).
Trump’s got a company called Trump International Golf Links. As one might expect, they build golf courses and resorts so people with fat wallets and plaid pants can whack balls into holes and talk about how fat their wallets are. One of those places is called the Doonbeg Golf Resort in County Clare, and area of Ireland that’s incredibly beautiful and also happens to have a handful of really good waves. In an oversight of staggeringly huge proportions, Doonbeg is built pretty much on the sand, a construction no-no so bad even the bible says it’s wrong–and despite the fact that the bible’s wrong about a lot of things, it’s right about that.
“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.” said Moses or James or whoever wrote the Good Book. “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
It’s a prophecy! But after months of increasing petition pressure, it looks as though Trump International Golf Links has decided to walk away from from the wall.
“Trump’s decision to walk away from the seawall proposal is a huge milestone for the #NatureTrumpsWalls campaign and we are very excited by this decision,” said Nick Mucha, Save the Waves’ Program Director. “We are proud to have brought worldwide attention to this issue and save Doughmore Beach from their ill-conceived proposal. Our work continues as they consider scaled-back measures, but we are excited to spare Doughmore Beach of the monstrous seawall proposal.”
Trump International Golf Links, however, has something else in mind. According to Save the Waves, the people who started the petition, it would consist of a “series of metal sheet piling installations with a rock armor fronting that will be burrowed below the ‘sacrificial sand overburden. This will be in place for about 650m at the south end of the beach and 250m at the north end.”
While it all sounds nice–#NatureTrumpsWalls was a catchy slogan–it is a pretty complicated thing, as with most things that involve humans. See, as it turns out, many of the locals actually supported the wall and the jobs the hotel affords the small community. Early on in the proposal stages, the Trump Organization said if they didn’t get approval to build the wall, they’d simply close up shop. “Trump is threatening to close the facility and lay off people, if he doesn’t get his way,” Wayne, an admin from the Save Doughmore Facebook page, told MSW. “These are scary threats, there’s no question of that. The fear of our friends and neighbors losing work is very scary, and let me reiterate we are in no way trying to close the hotel and golf course, we are just asking for some ethical business practices and some sound environment practices. The permanent destruction of a beach can never be the correct, moral and sane choice.”
