After finally fulfilling the promise to Irish fans that he made back in 2014, Garth Brooks jetted back to America last night.
he Oklahoma superstar and his wife Trisha Yearwood, accompanied by members of their family, took off from Dublin Airport in the early hours of Sunday morning after Brooks played his final show in Croke Park.
It brings to nearly half a million the number of people who have seen him performing live over the past nine days, having met with rave reviews from fans and critics alike.
And in what will be music to the ears of his supporters, he promised at a press conference last night that he is coming back.
“I don’t know in what form but I will be back. I don’t know when or the venue but I love Ireland so much I would play in a field. I like the way Ed Sheeran played Croke Park and then played a tour around Ireland,” he said.
“Once you’ve tasted it, like I have with these five shows, you want to come back here quick enough. What you guys give an artist like me in Ireland you can’t get it anywhere else on the planet.
“Wherever I go from now on, I will be talking about one thing: Ireland, Ireland, Ireland. As someone who does this for a living , any chance to play here I would love.”
He said that he and wife Trisha had their favourite meal at a restaurant in Glendalough and they visited about 11 counties while they were here. For them, the last two weekends had been “amazing.”
“Me and Mrs Yearwood love Ireland so much that we will be back. It was such an emotional time. I couldn’t stop myself crying at times during the shows. All I can say is I love this country,” he said.
He has been filmed by a Netflix documentary crew for the duration of his time here, having embarked on quite the whistle-stop tour of Ireland. He was filmed having a pint in a pub in Dingle before meeting members of the Munster rugby team in Limerick alongside a trip to Glendalough and a stroll down to Portland Place in Dublin 1 to meet with some of the locals.
A plethora of well-known faces attended his gigs over the course of the mammoth five-night run. Attendees included the Italian Ambassador Ruggeiro Corrias, the Brazilian ambassador Marcel Fortuna Biato and the American ambassador Claire Cronin, who went twice. Also there was Minister Catherine Martin and junior Minister Thomas Byrne as well as Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, Senator Timmy Dooley, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Ruby Walsh and Robbie and Claudine Keane.
