Concert hits high notes in becoming a call to arms
Image by Kieran Lynam via FlickrMain picture, top: President Obama with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at College Green last night; above, Dublin singer Imelda May entertains the crowd yesterday and rugby hero Brian O'Driscoll with the Heineken Cup. Paddy Cummins/Collins
THE tens of thousands of people who crammed into College Green in Dublin experienced all four seasons in the space of a few hours.
The crowd stretched back up Dame Street as far as the eye could see as they waited to give the 44th President of the United States the welcome of a lifetime.
Entitled 'Is Féidir Linn/Yes We Can', the concert had been billed as a celebration of Irish music, film and sport but rapidly turned into a call to arms to the nation.
Ireland's music acts had been expected to be provide the perfect warm-up act for Mr Obama but throughout the afternoon it was those introducing them who stole the show.
They included actor Brendan Gleeson, who whipped the crowd into such a patriotic frenzy that he was in danger of upstaging the act he was there to introduce, Monaghan singer Ryan Sheridan.
Another poignant address came from actor Stephen Rea, who, introducing Liberties singer Imelda May, recited a WB Yeats poem: "I am of Ireland to all of those Irish people who had to emigrate over the years. We hope it will not be too long before these people, or their children, return to dance with us in Ireland."
RTE commentator Micheal O Muircheartaigh had been another star turn, bringing Irish sporting heroes, including Robbie Keane, Katie Taylor, 'King' Henry Shefflin, Padraig Harrington and Brian O'Driscoll, fresh from Leinster's Heineken Cup victory, to an ecstatic crowd.
THE tens of thousands of people who crammed into College Green in Dublin experienced all four seasons in the space of a few hours.
The crowd stretched back up Dame Street as far as the eye could see as they waited to give the 44th President of the United States the welcome of a lifetime.
Entitled 'Is Féidir Linn/Yes We Can', the concert had been billed as a celebration of Irish music, film and sport but rapidly turned into a call to arms to the nation.
Ireland's music acts had been expected to be provide the perfect warm-up act for Mr Obama but throughout the afternoon it was those introducing them who stole the show.
They included actor Brendan Gleeson, who whipped the crowd into such a patriotic frenzy that he was in danger of upstaging the act he was there to introduce, Monaghan singer Ryan Sheridan.
Another poignant address came from actor Stephen Rea, who, introducing Liberties singer Imelda May, recited a WB Yeats poem: "I am of Ireland to all of those Irish people who had to emigrate over the years. We hope it will not be too long before these people, or their children, return to dance with us in Ireland."
RTE commentator Micheal O Muircheartaigh had been another star turn, bringing Irish sporting heroes, including Robbie Keane, Katie Taylor, 'King' Henry Shefflin, Padraig Harrington and Brian O'Driscoll, fresh from Leinster's Heineken Cup victory, to an ecstatic crowd.
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