At a press conference in Dublin’s Croke Park yesterday some media were more akin to fans with one even shouting: “I love you, Garth.”

So, why is he so big in Ireland? And although one-tenth of the population bought tickets for the five gigs that infamously didn’t go ahead in Croke Park in 2014, why are so many Irish people perplexed by his popularity?

One major reason appears to be the rural and urban divide, with many Dubliners – like lots of other things – not having a good understanding of country living.

“Country music is huge outside of Dublin, and the Irish country music scene is massive everywhere in Ireland except Dublin,” music author and journalist Eddie Rowley said. “I don’t know what the disconnect is.”

Ireland’s obsession with the country singer – who said the 2014 debacle was “like a death” in his family – began when the showband era began to die out. This, along with a craze of line dancing in the late 1980s, propelled Brooks to stardom in Ireland.

Music critic John Meagher said it’s “a curious thing” that Irish people are so obsessed with the American megastar, but then again his “everyman” vibe certainly appeals to rural Ireland.

“He is spectacularly American and yet I think part of it is he is seen as he’s not a city slicker, he’s not this sophisticated knowing kind of character from one of the big towns of America. He presents himself as the everyman and there is an appeal to that.

“It is a curious thing, Garth Brooks per capita doesn’t do anything like this kind of business in Britain so it might be this old kind of connection [Ireland has] to America, whatever reason that might be.” The country megastar also appeals to almost all age groups, something the music critic says is extremely rare, with people buying tickets as Christmas presents or families taking a trip to Dublin together to the gig.

Priest and radio broadcaster Fr Brian D’Arcy believes Brooks’s “new sound to country music” was a big draw for Ireland, which in the boom was trying to steer away from old traditions but also keep its heritage. 

“He has a special relationship with Ireland and always had. I interviewed him in Nashville in 1992 before he had come to Ireland and he said he promised his mother that his first show outside of America would be in Ireland, and it was.”

In 1994, Brooks made his international debut by playing eight nights in Dublin’s Point Depot, now known as the 3Arena.

Three years later he returned to play three nights in Croke Park, which had an NBC special and DVD release.

Mr Rowley said there is still hype surrounding the musician because of these gigs and that many youngsters grew up listening to him because of their parents.

They have now become big fans themselves.

“He built it up starting in The Point and then onto Croke Park but it was a combination of great songs and then his showmanship,” he explained. “His showmanship is not country it’s rock and roll, it’s kind of Elvis Presley meets the Rolling Stones.

“People still listen to the songs. Thirty years after he first came here, if you go into any pub down the country and they have a jukebox there will be a Garth Brooks song. Those songs are amazing and they are part of our culture now.”

Fr D’Arcy agreed, saying: “If you go to any wedding there will be a Garth Brooks song. If you want to feel the pulse of any nation go to a wedding and see what the wedding bands play because they know what the punters want, and you will always get Garth Brooks imitators.

“The vibrancy of his music, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I realise that – but what music is?”