{"id":250841,"date":"2025-07-09T13:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250841\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T13:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:21:12","slug":"rory-mcilroy-celebrated-by-ni-ice-cream-family-in-sweet-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250841\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy celebrated by NI ice-cream family in sweet tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 2.5 million ice cream sprinkles were used to create the mural, which is available to view for free at the Morelli&#8217;s store in Portrush<\/p>\n<p>10:12, 09 Jul 2025Updated 10:30, 09 Jul 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1_GettyImages-2209607782-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy won The Masters at the 17th attempt \" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Rory McIlroy holds the trophy after the final round of the Masters(Image: Ben Jared\/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Ireland&#8217;s most celebrated ice cream dynasty has honoured one of the world&#8217;s greatest golfers by revealing a portrait of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/rory-mcilroy\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Rory McIlroy<\/a> crafted entirely from ice cream sprinkles in anticipation of the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/open-tee-times-look-set-32020928\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">153rd Open at Royal Portrush<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The artwork, constructed using approximately 2.5 million sprinkles, has been displayed at the Morelli&#8217;s Ice Cream parlour in<a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/portrush\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"> Portrush.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Designed by artists Triskill, the portrait depicts McIlroy&#8217;s recent triumph at The Masters, a victory that solidified his status as one of golf&#8217;s all-time greats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Over 2.5m ice cream sprinkles went into constructing the artwork, which visitors can admire without charge at the Morelli&#8217;s shop on Eglinton Street in Portrush from Wednesday 9th July through Thursday 31st July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Daniela Morelli-Kerr from Morelli&#8217;s Ice Cream said: &#8220;When we were cheering on Rory&#8217;s win at The Masters, we had an idea to pay tribute to the golfing hero ahead of his appearance at The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;As one of Ireland&#8217;s oldest ice cream companies, we knew that we had to make something colourful and tasty and what better way to celebrate Rory&#8217;s achievements than by creating a mural made entirely of our sprinkles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;The design looks fantastic, and we&#8217;re excited to welcome thousands of golf fans to our store to see the mural during what&#8217;s going to be an exciting time for our town.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Morellis-RoryMc3-min.jpg\" alt=\"The Rory McIlroy tribute\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Ahead of The 153rd Open, Ireland\u2019s most famous ice cream family have immortalised Rory McIlroy in over 2.5m sprinkles at their Portrush store<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Peter Morelli founded Morelli&#8217;s Ice Cream back in 1911. The company has since thrived and grown considerably.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The firm presently operates five family-run shops and eleven branded outlets in Northern Ireland, in addition to supplying Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Sainsbury&#8217;s, M&amp;S and a variety of independent retailers across the UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hereLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"> and <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=1342b3be-3db3-461a-a6b4-c60bfcaa13da&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"sign up to our daily newsletterLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 2.5 million ice cream sprinkles were used to create the mural, which is available to view&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,29102,4287,79,96288,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-250841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-portrush","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-the-153rd-open-at-portrush","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114823488130181032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}