‘We had a ball with Trump’: The Irish culture warriors who became darlings of the American right

With their prolific media output about abortion, climate change and trans issues, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney are now key figures in the US culture wars – with the former president’s backing. The controversial couple talk to Donal Lynch

Film-makers Phelim MacAleer and Ann McElhinney, at the seafront in Bundoran, Co Donegal. Picture by Joe Dunne

Donal Lynch

As America processed the imminent overturning of the Roe v Wade ruling this May, a play about one of the country’s most notorious abortion cases opened at a theatre in New York’s midtown.

Oh Gosnell: The Truth about Abortion dealt with the story of Kermit Gosnell, a doctor who for decades performed illegal late-term abortions in Philadelphia. Gosnell was ultimately convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and a further 21 counts of performing an illegal late-term abortion.