Endangered snail and 'hermetic figure' threaten Trump’s other ballroom

President Donald Trump continues to push for a lavish ballroom that would be built where the White House's demolished East Wing once stood, but that isn't the only ballroom Trump is focused on. Trump is also proposing a ballroom for his Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. But according to Washington Post reporter Terrence McCoy, it is hitting a major snag despite support from many local residents.

The Irish ballroom — the "other ballroom" — McCoy reports, isn't generating nearly as much opposition as the White House proposal.

According to McCoy, "Unlike in Washington, where Trump's push to fast-track a grandiose White House ballroom set off a political and legal fight that has now reached the Supreme Court, the population of Doonbeg, which hovers around 300, had lined up behind the project."

But Liam Madden, an Ireland resident who is committed to protecting a type of endangered snail, is fighting the project.

"Questions over the fate of the threatened Vertigo angustior snail — a microscopic mollusk nestled in Doonbeg's sandy dunes — had bedeviled the golf property even before the Trump Organization owned it," McCoy explains. "But in February, (a local planning) commission approved the ballroom provided the Trumps offer a snail restoration plan ... The jubilation, however, was quickly cut short."

McCoy continues, "Days after the February approval, a lone appeal was lodged by Liam Madden, a hermetic figure notorious for blocking hundreds, if not thousands, of development projects across Ireland, including a previous expansion plan in Doonbeg. Impervious to shaming or calls for decency, he once stirred such rage that a foe attacked him with a blowtorch."

Madden told an appellate board, "Please, refuse this nonsense."

According to McCoy, the 76-year-old Madden is well-known in Ireland for "his ability to torpedo plans."

Trump, McCoy reports, is aware of concerns about the endangered snail and told Irish environmentalist Tony Lowes, "I'll be a friend to the snail." But Madden isn't convinced.

"Questions over the threatened Vertigo angustior, a fickle creature with exacting ecological needs, had long troubled the golf course," according to McCoy. "Even before it was built, Lowes' Friends of the Irish Environment had filed a lawsuit to protect the snail. A judge ordered that the snail's lot be 'maintained or improved' and a settlement agreement even allowed for the appointment of a snail expert as a sort of steward.

For years, the snail thrived, and Trump promised to sustain its roll. But Lowes said the Trumps haven't kept their word, and the snail’s population has plunged.