Cork's multinational profits in the crosshairs, drawing Trump’s attention

Eli Lilly in Kinsale is the prime example of developments the president said the US should not have allowed to happen

The Eli Lilly manufacturing plant in Kinsale: The company has a long-established relationship with University College Cork. Picture: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg

Long a tourist destination, Kinsale is booming as its artisan craft stores jostle with fish restaurants around the harbour. 

On the town’s edge, earth movers and concrete mixers are at work on a construction site for new housing. A chief reason for the town’s vibrancy lies a 10-minute drive away. It’s here among the rolling hills and lush farmland that Eli Lilly produces an active ingredient for its blockbuster Mounjaro and Zepbound drugs.