Donald Trump's forthcoming visit to Ireland will involve a vast security operation, culminating in the US president spending the night at his own Doonbeg hotel in Co Clare rather than the state guest house, the Mail can reveal. His itinerary includes meetings with President Catherine Connolly, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and most of his Cabinet, along with the first press conference by a sitting US president in Ireland since George Bush's 2004 visit, marking what the Irish government regards as a significant diplomatic coup for a small country.

Trump will land at Dublin Airport on Saturday morning aboard his new Qatari-provided Air Force One Boeing 747-8, before being flown by Marine One helicopter, escorted by Blackhawk gunships, to Áras an Uachtaráin and then Farmleigh for talks with Connolly and Martin. Rather than staying overnight at Farmleigh, he will fly back via Dublin and Shannon airports to Doonbeg, arriving as the Irish Open golf tournament nears its close, with a second set of armoured helicopters flown in separately by military cargo plane. Secret Service sources said Trump would travel almost entirely by air due to concerns over Ireland's limited ground security capabilities, while government figures hailed the scale of his engagement as a rare honour for a country of Ireland's size.