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The Groupama sailing team celebrate winning the Volvo Ocean Race in the early hours of Tuesday ©INPHO/PAUL TODD/Volvo Ocean Race
Galway
Taoiseach: "Galway went global this week" with Volvo Ocean Race
Enda Kenny said that the race finale had brought the kind of audience and publicity “that no marketing budget could ever buy”.
TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has praised the massive success of the Volvo Ocean Race finale in Galway this week, saying it has brought the kind of audience and publicity “that no marketing budget could ever buy”.
“Galway went global this week,” he told a crowd in Galway today. “Billions of people all over the world got to see exactly what the city has to offer”.
He said the event had sent out a “strong message about the personality and the style of the city and of the Irish people to the world”.
The race took eight months to travel 39,000 miles around the world before ending in Galway in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Thousands of people took to Galway’s quays to welcome the fleet, including race winners Groupama.
The Taoiseach spent today visiting the race village and exhibition centre where he opened an international conference on sustainable growth.
Enda Kenny said he hoped that those who had come to Galway for the occasion would return in the future, particularly in 2013, when the government is hosting The Gathering, which encourages people to visit Ireland.
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