Chantelle’s mother had been promising to bring her daughter to Barbra Streisand ever since she first saw the diva in concert 13 years ago. By happy coincidence, the singer’s Irish date fell around the time of her mum’s 50th birthday celebrations. So they decided to splurge.

At the Town Bar and Grill in Kildare Street, Dublin, the manager was planning to keep the kitchen open for a little later than usual that night. He had a special booking lined up – 30 people after the Barbra Streisand show. It’d be worth keeping the chefs on for another half hour if that was what it took. The guys who’d made the booking would be savvy enough to leave before the encore to get out ahead of the crowd. And they’d likely be in high spirits: better make sure to have some champagne at the ready…

Gerhard and Hans were explaining to the young girls on the bus that they had seen Barbra four times in their lives, and this was going to be their fifth. They had travelled over from Munich especially. They smiled indulgently at each other, and the Celbridge girls shot a few glances at each other wondering if these two grey-haired old guys were gay. But they seemed harmless enough, and Gerhard regaled the girls with his stories, how she was far too young for Hello Dolly but got away with it, how Yentl was consistently underrated because people can’t stand a woman taking full charge of things, when men do it all the time, and of seeing her in New York last year. “But why would you want to see her again?” asked Katrina. “She’s simply a living legend,” answered Hans. And the two men nodded, in unison.