I’d be a rich man if I had a dollar for every media outlet call from Ireland wondering how America is handling the Garth Brooks concerts debacle in Ireland.
There were demonstrations in Dublin over the weekend, they say excitedly, calling for the five canceled concerts to be reinstated.
They ask are Americans all worked up too?
Alas, I tell them, America is not.
Indeed, America has taken a pass on that one.
America is yawning.
Garth Brooks and the Dublin controversy might as well not be happening, apart from a few trade papers and entertainment section stories.
Indeed, a Google search would reveal that apart from an online magazine called Vulture, there is almost no reportage of the Brooks affair in recent days.
'How can that be?', they ask, 'Headlines have appeared in Ireland in recent days speculating that American performers by the busload will begin pulling out of Ireland?'
I tell them there is not a single word in any publication I can find suggesting that.
Why this disconnect?
It happens sometimes.
Read more: Crazy week in Ireland thanks to Garth Brooks
When Katie Taylor was close to winning a gold medal in women’s boxing at the Olympics the same phenomenon occurred.
Dozens of Irish media colleagues asked how it was playing in the US.
Hardy at all I told them. America had its own Olympic heroes to focus on.
Sometimes America thinks the world has only got eyes for them.
Sometimes Ireland seems to catch this malady too.
Garth Brooks has not performed live for 15 years I am told.
The US cycles the latest stars through their star machine in a year or less and then spits them out. So that’s an eternity.
Garth Brooks just doesn’t have the same impact in America he once had.
Which begs me to ask why he is so popular still in Ireland?
I’ll probably be shot for asking that question.
I’m sure friends in high and low places will let me know.
Until then Garth, happy trails to Dublin, as Roy Rogers might say.
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