Garth Brooks will play his fifth and final gig at Croke Park on Saturday evening.
The country hitmaker has already played to four packed-out stadiums over the last two weekends and when the lights go down on Saturday, almost 400,000 people will have witnessed Garth live in Dublin.
Brooks has been travelling around Ireland in between gigs and even performed a sing-song at Dick Mack's pub in Dingle.
READ MORE: Garth Brooks will play 'secret encore' at final Croke Park gig tonight but there's a catch for fans
But what are the country singer’s connections to Ireland and why does he have such a big fanbase here?
Irish heritage
It may come as no surprise that Garth has Irish roots. Garth’s mother Colleen McElroy Carroll was a 1950s-era country singer of Irish ancestry.
She sadly died of throat cancer in 1999 aged 70.
No Irish number one
Garth Brooks is one of the biggest stars in music and is the best-selling solo artist of the 20th century in the US. However, he has never had a number one hit in Ireland.
His 1993 hit Friends In Low Places came the closest, peaking at number three in the Irish charts.
Song to Ireland
In an ode to his Irish heritage, Garth released a song called Ireland in 1995 about returning to his ancestors’ homeland.
The lyrics go: “Ireland I am coming home / I can see your rolling fields of green / And fences made of stone / I am reaching out won't you take my hand / I'm coming home Ireland.”
Garth’s love for Ireland and his Irish fans
Garth Brooks has made no secret of his affection for Ireland and the Irish people calling it the “greatest privilege” to play concerts in Ireland.
He adores the Irish crowds who come to see him perform and recently said: “To stand in Ireland and hear those people sing, it must be the greatest sound you’ll ever hear.
“It was always the place where you couldn’t start a song – two words and it’s gone, they’re taking over.
“That’s the way music should be. When you hear them singing your stuff in Croke Park, it’s like heaven.”
Previous shows in Ireland
Garth Brooks first came on tour to Ireland in 1994, playing eight nights in the Point Depot (now the 3Arena) to 68,000 fans.
He returned to Ireland in 1997 to play at a sold-out Croke Park. During his visit, he surprised fans by putting on a show on the back of a van in Bray, Co Wicklow.
After the 1997 stadium show, he hadn’t played a gig in Ireland - until now.
Five sold-out stadium gigs in Croke Park
In 2014, Garth Brooks' sold out five shows in Croke Park but they were later cancelled following a licensing dispute with locals around the venue and the local authorities.
Garth was said to have been devastated at the gigs being pulled and later described it like a “death in the family”.
However, last year he announced two more shows in Croke Park for 2022. The huge demand for those saw a third date added followed by two more - selling out five shows in total.
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