US President Donald Trump is to visit President Catherine Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin during his planned visit to Ireland next weekend.
Mr Trump is likely to arrive in Dublin early on the morning of Saturday 12 September before flying by Marine One helicopter to Phoenix Park for meetings with Ms Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
He will spend Saturday night at his golf resort in Doonbeg for the Irish Open golf tournament.
While a bilateral meeting with Mr Martin at Farmleigh House has long been expected, there had been some doubt over whether the US President would meet President Connolly.
It is understood a draft itinerary for Mr Trump’s visit early last month had no scheduled engagement at Áras an Uachtaráin, while a spokesperson for Ms Connolly had said she would consider any request for a meeting she received.
President Connolly insisted during last year’s election campaign that she would meet Mr Trump if the opportunity arose but she was critical of the Trump administration during her St Patrick’s Day message when she said that “the normalisation of war can never be accepted”.
Mr Trump erroneously referred to Ms Connolly as a “he” during a meeting with the Taoiseach in the Oval Office on St Patrick’s Day.
The pair’s meeting is being described as a brief courtesy call by those with knowledge of the trip, and so is unlikely to replicate the visits of previous US office holders Barack Obama and Joe Biden to former president Michael D Higgins.
Preparations for the US President’s arrival have been underway for several months, although Government sources acknowledge the sequence of events could still change up to the last minute.
Mr Trump’s visit to Ireland is now likely to resemble his second state visit to Britain this time last year during which he largely stayed within the confines of the walls of Windsor Castle, away from protesters.
Demonstrations at Mr Trump’s visit are planned in Dublin and Clare.
The Dublin leg of the journey will be largely confined to Phoenix Park for meetings with Ms Connolly and Mr Martin, with a planned pit stop to turn the sod at the new US embassy in Ballsbridge now likely off the agenda due to security and logistical challenges.
He will be greeted on the tarmac at Dublin Airport by a senior Government minister, likely Tánaiste Simon Harris.
Mr Trump could also meet his friend, the US Ambassador to Ireland Ed Walsh, at his Deerfield Residence in the Phoenix Park.
He will travel to his Doonbeg Golf resort on Saturday afternoon for the Irish Open Golf tournament.
Mr Trump will leave Ireland on Sunday evening, 13 September, or early Monday morning.