Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington DC was a moment of major political change after a tumultuous four years of the Trump administration.
For many in Ireland, however, there was one really big talking point about the ceremony: the performance of country music superstar Garth Brooks.
Thank you @GarthBrooks for joining us on #InaugurationDay for this historic moment of unity and hope. pic.twitter.com/pfcb3lkKXr
— Biden Inaugural Committee (@BidenInaugural) January 20, 2021
It was one of the top trending topics on Twitter in Ireland, as fans shared their hopes that someday the musician would finally return here.
Many will, of course, remember the saga of 2014 - when a planning row over five planned Garth Brooks concerts at Croke Park dominated headlines for weeks.
The singer pulled the plug entirely when organisers couldn't secure permission for the fourth and fifth gigs - and he hasn't returned to play in Ireland since.
On today's Lunchtime Live, Andrea heard from listeners who want Garth to finally return to these shores, as well as from some who think the country lost the run of itself back in 2014.
Fiona Looney is a columnist who also wrote the play Are You There Garth? It's Me, Margaret in the wake of the Croke Park saga.
She recalled: “We went totally mad in the summer of 2014.
“Everyone had an opinion, and people were livid… it got blown out of all proportion, but it was so entertaining.
“You can take away our economy, but don’t mess with our country music - that was the level of it!”
Fiona said she’d personally go see the "Longford under-14 b-team" play in Croke Park at the moment, since everyone is so starved for live entertainment and events.
However, she said Garth Brooks is a “multi-million dollar industry”, and the inauguration performance very much reopened memories of the “five concerts that never were”.
'A genuine and nice guy'
Listener Ryan says he met Garth Brooks a number of times through work.
He had the opportunity to interview Garth during his press appearances here, and casually mentioned his mother was a big fan.
Ryan said: “He asked me was I bringing my mother to the concert in Dublin. I was... he said he’d love to meet her.
“I got a call a couple of weeks after that to arrange it. Of course, that didn’t happen.”
Nonetheless, Garth’s personal assistant remained in contact with Ryan after the cancellation here - saying he’d still meet Ryan’s mother if they went to any other concert.
A failed attempt to travel for a concert in Tampa, Florida gave everyone involved the impression the planned meeting was ‘jinxed’.
However, Ryan said Garth insisted on putting it right - and they eventually got the “full VIP backstage treatment” at a concert in the Florida treatment.
Ryan recalled: “He came in, he met us, and had a full conversation.
“What we did halfway through the concert in Tampa was he stopped the concert, said ‘we have visitors here from Dublin’, told the story about how my mum couldn’t get to the gigs and I was a jinx.
“He made her feel like an absolute superstar.
“I always feel he gets a bad rep about what happened in Croke Park. There’s two sides to the stories, and it was a perfect storm… but he’s actually a very, very genuine and nice guy.”
Another listener Michael, however, said he felt the country ‘lost the run of itself’ back in 2014.
He said: “He had permission for three [concerts]... that’s 240,000 people. He wanted 400,000 - that’s one in ten of the population.
“The big buzz about the gig was that when he was at his peak, it was around the time of the Celtic Tiger. It was that whole feel-good factor - we Irish love that.
“But jeepers, we did lose the run of ourselves.”
