Kate Mulgrew ‘to move to Ireland’ if Trump wins second term

Star Trek actor says US president fails to appreciate seriousness of Covid-19

Star Trek actor Kate Mulgrew stayed near Lough Corrib when she was workding on her memoir.
Star Trek actor Kate Mulgrew stayed near Lough Corrib when she was workding on her memoir.

Irish-American actor Kate Mulgrew has revealed how she might move to Ireland if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Mulgrew said she believes the US president fails to appreciate the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic which has claimed almost 100,000 in America.

Ms Mulgrew, best known for her roles as Capt Katherine Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager and Red in Orange is the New Black, comes from what she described as an “unconventional Irish American family” and has always had a strong affinity with Ireland.

In an interview with Trekmovie. com">Trekmovie.com to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of Star Trek: Voyager, she said she may move to Ireland as Ireland is responding to the Covid 19 pandemic in a much more responsible way than the US under Mr Trump.

READ MORE

"We have a future to think about here. I have a granddaughter coming in October and I'll be good and damned if she's going to walk into this thing, if I haven't done something. I've been out stumping for my native state of Iowa, we've got to flip those seats.

“I am doing everything I can to change this. If Trump gets four more years, I am promising you, I will leave the country. And I will go and live in Ireland. There are very wise people over there. They get it,” Ms Mulgrew told the website.

Asked about the possibility of a Trekkie convention to mark the 25th anniversary of Star Trek Voyager going ahead this summer in Las Vegas, Ms Mulgrew said she was doubtful it would proceed as the organisers were conscious of the risk of people contracting Covid 19.

"I don't think they would imperil thousands of people for any number of reasons, foremost among them lawsuits. But it looks doubtful, don't you think? I think most people are just too nervous until a vaccine is available and approved. I'm with Anthony Fauci on this."

The second eldest in a family of eight, Ms Mulgrew lost both her parents in the past five years – her father TJ had aggressive lung cancer and her mother Joan had Alzheimer’s – and she chronicled the experience in her memoir How to Forget.

She moved to Lough Corrib outside Galway city to pen the memoir and she read from the work at last year's Galway International Arts Festival when she spoke to The Irish Times about how she felt at home in Ireland as she felt people here were less judgemental.

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times