Speaking today on Newstalk Breakfast, Ahern said he has known 92-year-old Mitchell for “the best part of thirty years,” having worked alongside him during the Peace process.

The university plans to remove Mitchell's name from the Institute for Global Peace, Security, and Justice, ⁠and to remove the bust commemorating him from its campus, it said in a statement.

The US-Ireland Alliance said the George J Mitchell Scholarship Programme would no longer bear the former US senator’s name.

The former US senator said it was a ‘special treat’ to return to the region for the tournament at Royal Portrush.