IT STILL HURTS

Country superstar Garth Brooks is still smarting over the decision to pull the plug on his f ive Croker shows in 2014

A NEWLY released Garth Brooks documentary revisits the debacle over the cancelled Croke Park concerts controversy in 2014, but Dublin City Council’s minor starring role has come as a complete surprise to the organisation’s chief executive.

Streaming service Netflix this week released a two-part documentary called Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On, and in it the country singer recalls the shambles that surrounded his five-night sold-out and then-cancelled shows.

Recounting how he was prompted by his partner to come out of retirement after 13 years Brooks takes a dramatic pause and says: ‘So, where do you start the world tour?’ to which he replies to the cameras, ‘Dublin, Ireland.’

But his return to Ireland after 20 years was not the céad mile fáilte he had hoped for, as his return to the world stage quickly dissolved into a melee.

In 2014, a baseball cap-wearing Brooks took to the pitch in Croke Park where he announced he was starting his world tour at the stadium in Dublin. The tickets sold out in record time - after just 90 minutes, Croke Park sold was to capacity. A third date was then added for country crazy fans and when they were snapped up two more nights were added.

Objections by locals prompted Dublin City Council to take action and Brooks’s former production manager John McBride tells the documentary that dealing with the council was no picnic.

‘Croke Park is a neighbourhood venue, three nights a year you can do something other than soccer, and the Irish... ah, they’re tough,’ he says in the documentary.

While the council is sure to have thought that the Brooks saga was a long-forgotten nightmare, they were surprised to learn that it featured prominently in the newly released documentary.

‘Our chief executive was not aware of this documentary and he has no comment to make,’ a spokesman told the Irish Mail on Sunday.

During the two-part biopic, the Friends In Low Places singer speaks of his love for Ireland despite having to cancel the first leg of his comeback tour.

‘When people say it’s the best place to play, Ireland, it’s craaazy. I’m in love with that country, and that’s why it hurts so much. And as far as those 400,000 Irish angels who showed up for me walked for me and fought for me, I handled the situation the only way I know how. We invited the Irish to come to America.’