This could be para-, para-, paradise
Coldplay

When we were walking up to Croke Park with more than 82,000 other Coldplay fans we knew this was going to be a special concert.

We had now idea what was going to hit us.

Perhaps the ‘armbands’ and the 3D glasses everybody got when they were entering the stadium could have been a give-away.

Pádraig had a good seat on the accessible platform with his sister. We sat across from him and were ready to enjoy the evening with some friends.

It turned out to be so much more than a concert. It was like a movie production, with different actors, not at least the audience, and credits at the end of the event on two giant screens.

The songs were magic. The performance brilliant. The production breath-taking.

Life goes on, it gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear, a waterfall
In the night, the stormy night, she’d close her eyes
In the night, the stormy night, away she’d fly

There are echoes of Oscar Wilde in the lyrics of songs like “Sky full of Stars” or “Paradise”

So lying underneath those stormy skies
We said, “Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, I know the sun must set to rise”

I believe this could be para-, para-, paradise.

We can get it if we really want. But we must try. Try and try. Try and try.