SHE keeps saying she's going to retire from live performing, but when you can fetch almost $1,000 for a single ticket who'd really want to give that up?

Certainly not Barbra Streisand, who's hitting the road yet again this summer, and Ireland is one of five European cities she'll be visiting in June/July. Babs will perform her first ever live Irish concert on Saturday, July 14 at Castletown House in Co. Kildare, but admission won't come cheap.

The cheapest seat is priced at *118.50 (about $170), with the top ducat going for *551.75 ($720). Oy vey, as the lady might say herself!

Given that she's such a legend, and she's never played on Irish soil before, it's quite likely that the tickets will be snapped up in a New York minute once they go on sale on Friday, May 11. Perhaps she'll even add a second show, as she's got free dates before and after the Irish performance.

"What a joy it will be to perform in so many wonderful countries for the first time," said Streisand in a press release. "I can't wait to experience these different audiences and different cultures."

In addition to Ireland, Babs is booked for Vienna, Paris, Nice and London, but her management promises that more dates will be added shortly. She'll be backed by a 58-piece orchestra as well.

The grounds of Castletown House can accommodate up to 12,000 fans, so it should be a lucrative payday for Streisand, who plans on sharing some of the profit with her self-named foundation which supports a number of causes. And no, the GOP definitely isn't one of them, as the famously liberal actress/singer would be the first to admit!