{"id":269014,"date":"2025-07-17T09:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T09:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269014\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T09:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T09:59:12","slug":"northern-irelands-leaders-hail-return-of-the-open-to-portrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269014\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s leaders hail return of The Open to Portrush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During a visit to the first day of the golf tournament at the Royal Portrush Golf Club Michelle O\u2019Neill said they were lucky to see it return after it was staged there in 2019 following a 68-year absence.<\/p>\n<p>Ms O\u2019Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were among an estimated 50,000 spectators who descended on the north coast town on Thursday for what has been described as the biggest sports event in terms of spectators held in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2.81015509.jpg\" alt=\"R&amp;A chief executive Mark Darbon speaking to deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill and Minister for the Economy Caoimhe Archibald\" data-title=\"The Open 2025 \u2013 Day One \u2013 Royal Portrush\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Brian Lawless\" data-usage-terms=\"Editorial use only. No commercial use. Still image use only. The Open Championship logo and clear link to The Open website (TheOpen.com) to be included on website publishing.\"  \/>R&amp;A chief executive Mark Darbon with deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill and Minister for the Economy Caoimhe Archibald, at Royal Portrush (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to be here again, to have The Open back with us again, and just in terms of what it means for us, in terms of the economic potential, so many visitors that come in person, millions that get online to watch what\u2019s happening as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I think that it\u2019s such a positive event for us, and we\u2019re so lucky to have it back in the north west,\u201d Ms O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt showcases all that\u2019s good about us. I think it very much sends a message that we\u2019re open for business and I think that when people tune in and they\u2019ll see this beautiful part of the world, they\u2019ll know that the island is amazing, they should want to come here and we will very much will be promoting that message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Little-Pengelly described a \u201creal opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland\u201d with a \u201chuge global audience watching\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing the beauty of what\u2019s here, seeing how professional the set-up is here, and hearing about Northern Ireland,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2.81016278.jpg\" alt=\"Ireland\u2019s Shane Lowry on day one of the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush\" data-title=\"The Open 2025 \u2013 Day One \u2013 Royal Portrush\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Brian Lawless\" data-usage-terms=\"Editorial use only. No commercial use. Still image use only. The Open Championship logo and clear link to The Open website (TheOpen.com) to be included on website publishing.\"  \/>Ireland\u2019s Shane Lowry on day one of the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s huge because, of course, in a very crowded marketplace, when it comes to trying to attract that investment, attract that tourism, attract that high-value golf tourism as well, actually getting the opportunity at the likes of The Open with that really, really huge global audience, is that really good unique opportunity for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that Tourism NI and Invest NI are really trying to maximise the opportunities of this tournament being here, the biggest sporting event, as I understand, in terms of spectators that we\u2019ve ever held in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a visit to the first day of the golf tournament at the Royal Portrush Golf Club Michelle&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-269014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114867992487942950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269014","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=269014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}