by Roger McCarrick

This was my first concert. I was 17. I couldn't get any of my friends to come with me. Then again I had a job and money in my phoca and they were a bunch of bums. I lived in Dundalk and there was a bus organized to go up and back to the park. When I got on the bus I saw a bunch of people I knew, I was glad to have company.
I was big into Simple Minds at the time and Eurythmics but I liked U2 also. When we got in, Steel Pulse were on stage. It was indeed hot. Quite hot. Thousands of pasty Irish people scorching in the sun. We settled around three quarters the way back.
Perfect Crime were next, then Big Country and then Eurythmics. I didn't see the punks or what they were doing but Annie Lennox stopped the show and let everyone know. She said something like "everyone here is nice except you, you're a fucking animal".
Simple Minds were great. Great. I clearly remember Someone Somewhere in Summertime and New Gold Dream, 81, 82, 83, 84. It all comes back when I hear those songs on my iPod.
Sometime during the day the stage announcer told us that Eammon Coghlan had won the gold medal in Helsinki for the 5000m. The crowd roared.
Then U2 came on as it started to get dark. They were just brilliant. I remember New Year's Day and Bono climbing the stage with his white flag saying "This is not a rebel song, this is Sunday Bloody Sunday".
I have seen them a few times now in Boston where I live. I was sitting beside some guy at one of the concerts who said to me "Hey buddy, I saw U2 way back in 1985" and I replied "I saw them in Dublin in 1983".

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