US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump has announced that Edward Walsh, president of the construction services business the Walsh Company, will serve as Ambassador to Ireland.

Announcing the news on his Truth Social platform, Trump described the new US ambassador to Ireland as a “great philanthropist in his local community”, where the president-elect says Walsh served as Chairman of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority Board.

Trump added that the Walsh Company, a New Jersey-based construction and project management firm founded in 2003 by Edward Walsh, was a “very successful” business.

The president commended Sharp on his golfing skills and called him an “asset” for the ambassador role.

The appointment was part of a flurry of announcement picks by the US president-elect yesterday, as Trump appointed Richard Grenell, a close advisor on foreign policy and intelligence issues, to be his presidential envoy for special missions.

Grenell, who served as US ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term and sought to overturn the president-elect’s 2020 election loss, appeared with Trump during a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.

The current US ambassador to Ireland Claire D. Cronin’s term ends on 20 January, when US President Joe Biden hands over power to the president-elect.