Gareth O'Callaghan: Could Ireland be on Donald Trump’s geopolitical radar?

A speculative scenario raises unsettling questions about Ireland’s defence, sovereignty and its place in an increasingly unpredictable global order

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon is no stranger to migration. His great-great grandfather left Ireland at the height of the Famine. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)

The year is 2028, two weeks into January. A farmer stands in the darkness on a hillside near Allihies watching a convoy of planes with a distinctive military drone to their engines high overhead as they close in on the coastline. The ground beneath his feet shakes. 

Some 200 miles away, it's a quiet frosty morning at Shannon airport.