Portrush
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Template:Infobox Irish Place Portrush (Port Rois in Irish) is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, beside the border with County Londonderry. Rois is the Irish word for headland and the main part of the old town, including the railway station, most hotels, restaurants and bars, is built on a peninsula pointing north-northwest. It had a population of 6,372 people in the 2001 Census. In the off-season, Portrush is a dormitory town for the nearby campus of the University of Ulster at Coleraine.
It is the base for the Katie Hannon, a Severn class lifeboat and Ken and Mary, a D class inshore lifeboat of the RNLI. Lifeboats have operated out of Portrush Harbour since 1860. For more information see the RNLI web site.
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Places of interest
Attractions in the seaside resort, next to Portstewart, include the famous (at least in Northern Ireland) Barry's Amusements, Portrush Countryside Centre, the Dunluce Centre and a swimming complex. Also in the town is the renowned Royal Portrush Golf Club which hosted the 1951 British Open golf championship. There are sandy and rocky beaches to the east and west.
Portrush is home to one of Northern Ireland's best known nightclubs. Lush (more commonly known as Kelly's to locals) attracts many of the world's top DJs and hosts BBC Radio 1 events. In February 2006 Norman Cook announced that he would be DJing on the town's East Strand beach. Cook has previously played similar gigs on Brighton beach and Flamengo Beach in Rio de Janeiro. [1]
2001 Census
Portrush is classified as a Small Town by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 4,500 and 10,000 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 6,372 people living in Portrush. Of these:
- 20.8% were aged under 16 years and 23.1% were aged 60 and over
- 46.2% of the population were male and 53.8% were female
- 23.6% were from a Catholic background and 70.6% were from a Protestant background
- 5.1% of people aged 16-74 were unemployed.
For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service