{"id":277966,"date":"2025-07-20T18:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T18:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277966\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T18:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T18:06:31","slug":"hosting-open-a-tribute-to-people-of-northern-ireland-says-george-mitchell-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277966\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosting Open a \u2018tribute\u2019 to people of Northern Ireland, says George Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a \u201cspecial treat\u201d to return to Northern Ireland for the Open at Royal Portrush, former US senator George Mitchell has said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mitchell, who chaired the 1998 Good Friday negotiations to their successful outcome, said hosting the Open was a \u201ctribute to the people of Northern Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the PA news agency at the tournament on Sunday, Mr Mitchell said: \u201cIt is a great pleasure for me to return to Northern Ireland at any time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spent six years here working towards peace and I\u2019ve had the pleasure of coming back often since then.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a special treat for me because my son Andrew, who was born during the time I worked in Northern Ireland, is a very good golfer and very much interested in golf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so the chance to travel with him back to Northern Ireland and to be at the Open is really, for me, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 91-year-old said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had a great time, he walked the entire course yesterday. I couldn\u2019t do that, but I enjoyed watching the golfers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mitchell said he was hoping for a \u201cgreat outcome\u201d on the final day of the Open.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cFor me, although I\u2019m an American and proud of it, always will be, a very large part of my heart and my emotions will always be in Northern Ireland with the great people here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"415\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.resized.co\/breaking-news\/eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXJsXCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL2ltYWdlLmFzc2V0cy5wcmVzc2Fzc29jaWF0aW9uLmlvXFxcL3YyXFxcL2ltYWdlXFxcL3Byb2R1Y3Rpb25cXFwvNjEyMzE5YWU1OTdkNjEwZjNlMWY1NGNkZWU2ZmMzMWZZMjl1ZEdWdWRITmxZWEpqYUdGd2FTd3hOelV6TVRBM05EYzFcXFwvMi44MTA0OTExNy5qcGc_dz02NDBcIixcIndpZHRoXCI6XCI2NDBcIixcImhlaWdodFwiOlwiNDE1XCIsXCJkZWZhdWx0XCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL3d3dy5icmVha2luZ25ld3MuaWVcXFwvaW1hZ2VzXFxcL25vLWltYWdlLnBuZ1wiLFwib3B0aW9uc1wiOntcIm91dHB1dFwiOlwiYXZpZlwiLFwicXVhbGl0eVwiOlwiNTVcIn19IiwiaGFzaCI6ImI3OTY2OGNmOTMwMTIxYTU3ZDc1NWRlNTdiZjU2NWQzYjM5MTVlYmQifQ==\/hosting-open-a-tribute-to-people-of-northern-ireland-says-george-mitchell.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"The Claret Jug trophy by the 1st tee during day four of The 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush in County Antrim\" data-title=\"The Open 2025 \u2013 Day Four \u2013 Royal Portrush\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Mike Egerton\" 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.\"\/>The 153rd Open Championship was being held at Royal Portrush in County Antrim (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the progress made in Northern Ireland since the peace process, which now saw the region hosting high-profile international sporting events, Mr Mitchell said: \u201cI think too many people \u2013 here and elsewhere \u2013 associate Northern Ireland with political violence and upheaval.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in fact, as we\u2019ve seen over the last quarter-century, the people of Northern Ireland are energetic, intelligent, active and I think it is a great place to live, work, visit \u2013 whether you\u2019re here to watch a golf tournament or do anything else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I think it is, in a way, a tribute to the people of Northern Ireland that the Open is here again and hopefully will be back again often.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cIt is pretty hard to top Portrush on a beautiful weekend as has been the case this weekend, and so I look forward to coming back again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a \u201cspecial treat\u201d to return to Northern Ireland for the Open at Royal Portrush, former US&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-277966","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\/114886894298525915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277966","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=277966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}