Garth Brooks' Five Dublin Shows Finally Cancelled

The Garth Brooks saga was finally brought to an end tonight with the devastating news for Irish fans that the concerts had been cancelled.

Negotiations have been going on around the clock, in an effort to salvage the gigs, following the disastrous decision by Dublin City Council to allow only three of the five gigs originally planned for later this month to go ahead. However, according to reports, Dublin City Council has now apparently told the singer that there is no scope for changing the decision – and as a result the gigs have finally, and apparently irrevocably, been pulled.

“I have always been advised to NEVER send a message in 'the moment'. It is said it is best to take a walk, wait awhile, and think about it,” Garth Brooks said in a statement emanating from his public relations company, Nancy Seltzer and Associates, who are based in LA.

"With that said, I just received the news the Irish council cannot change their earlier ruling to not allow the licenses for all five shows,” the singer added.
“To say I am crushed is an understatement. All I see is my mother’s face and I hear her voice. She always said things happen for a reason and for the right reason. As hard as I try, I cannot see the light on this one.

"So it is with a broken heart, I announce the ticket refunds for the event will go as posted by TicketMaster.”

In what has the feel of a heart-felt statement, the country superstar also thanked the Irish authorities “for going the distance for all of us who wanted to share the songs and dance together."

The singer also used the statement to thank the promoter Peter Aiken, of Aiken Promotions.

“Most of all,” he stated, "to Peter Aiken, and those 400,000 people who believed enough to go through what they have been through to get to this point.I love you. Always have, always will.”

And in a note that will provoke a hollow laugh from Irish tourism interests – who have been devastated by the refusal of Dublin City Council to permit the gigs – he encourages Irish fans to travel elsewhere in the word to see him in live action during the course of the tour.

“I encourage any and all of them that can come see the show, at some point around the world,” he says, "to bring your Irish flags and wave them proudly at the concerts. I will be looking for you… Garth"

Brooks also thanked "the people around the world that continued to think good thoughts that this would actually happen.”

Unless there is a miracle overnight, the die has been cast. The sands of time have caught up with efforts to broker a compromise – and there is unlikely to be any going back. It should make the Environment Committee hearings on the debacle, scheduled for the Dáil tomorrow, all the more gruesomely fascinating – not least in light of the fact that so many of the objections to the shows have proven to be bogus.

Not even that was enough, however, to change the official mind.