TRUMP’S REIGN:

Eilis O’Hanlon, Eoghan Harris, Miriam O’Callaghan and Niamh Horan,

IN the “five minute” news cycle it’s difficult to recall what made headlines a week ago, let alone last year. The criticism surrounding Donald Trump’s travel ban — and Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s vow to give Trump a piece of his mind when they meet — is a case in point.

So let’s cast our minds back to St Patrick’s Day 2016.

Kenny had just returned from his White House visit when he had to interrupt Dail proceedings to hold a minute’s silence for the victims of the Brussels attacks in which 32 people died. It came four months after the Paris attacks. In that instance, 130 people lost their lives.

At the time, Kenny said: “We stand with Belgium,” and all talk fixated on what we were doing to protect our own borders. Justice Minister Francis Fitzgerald warned that Ireland was “not immune” and the Irish Government vowed to take all “necessary steps” to prevent any future attack.

So what have they done since? Well, not much really.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has said it still doesn’t have the “knowledge, capability or training” to deal with terrorism. A former head of the UK’s counter-terrorism security office has warned Ireland is repeating the mistakes of Belgium and France by dismissing Isil as “someone else’s problem”.

And prominent moderate Dublin-based imam Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri said there are now up to 100 extremists based here, radicalising Muslim youths. His story of how a group of youths told him, “We hate Westerners, we are Isil”, when he asked if they wanted to join a peace march, is particularly disturbing.

And yet it will take another bombing in Europe for our attention to return to radical extremism in Ireland and refocus on the Government’s inaction.

In the meantime, Trump is one elected representative who is following through on what he promised. His first task is to overhaul refugee policy.

Trump’s approach has caused widespread hysteria. The rollout could have been better handled but the principle of what he is doing is sound. If we were to step back and take a cold, hard look at the measures, they are nothing more than a four-month pause to allow a security review.

The seven listed countries all have previous form when it comes to terrorism — and, despite liberals labelling the ban anti-Muslim, there is no mention of religion anywhere in the executive order. Once the review is complete, refugee entry will then return to roughly the same levels they were at under Barack Obama.

The problem is that in the age of modern media, overtly simplistic storytelling has become more important than a nuanced reality.

But it’s worth noting that, while Trump plans to deport three million people, Obama deported 2.5 million. In fact, Obama’s record on the refugee crisis is such that it earned him the nickname “deporter-in-chief” from US immigration groups.

Or perhaps you’ll be surprised to hear that, while Obama was busy doing the TV chat show circuit, his forces dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone. That’s an average of three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day. Most falling on Iraq and Syria.

During a five-month campaign in Afghanistan, his US drone strikes also caused the deaths of innocent people 90pc of the time, according to leaked intelligence documents.

But, listen, all that happens in far-away countries — reported in news stories that we pay little attention to. What’s a couple of dead children when people are being held up to complete extra paperwork in the land of the free?

Make no mistake, I am pro welcoming refugees — Ireland’s own record on this is a disgrace. But I am reasoned enough to know that measures need to be taken to tighten security on borders and Europe should follow suit.

What is the point of giving refugees the chance to start a new life, only for them to land in a country that is bombed by the same radicals who destroyed their country back home?

We wait to hear how this weekend’s Louvre attacker gained entry to France but the EU border agency Frontex has confirmed Isil is taking advantage of chaotic border checks by posing as refugees to get into Europe.

Seven of the nine jihadis who launched the 2015 Paris attacks entered Europe through a migration route, posing as refugees. We can’t ignore these facts and it is only a matter of time until lax security leads to further tragedies. Screaming offence at Trump’s immigration plan is senseless.

So let’s stop the moral hand-wringing, forget reactionary populism, take the shamrock, and act in the taxpayer’s interest.

When you put the hysteria to one side, there’s only one thing worth remembering on our national day: Ireland remains America’s gateway to Europe and the global location of choice for US investment.

And with powerful investors such as Wilbur Ross and Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack (who have all invested in Ireland) now standing by Trump’s side, there couldn’t be a better place for Enda Kenny to be on March 17.