We take a look at the Beatles in Ireland with an account of every live show by this seminal British band.
Considered by many the greatest band of all time, the influence of the Beatles on contemporary culture cannot be overstated.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made an indelible mark on the cultural landscape of the 1960s that still reverberates today.
But what effect did they have on the Emerald Isle? To answer that question, we take a look at the history of the Beatles in Ireland.
The Beatles’ links to Ireland – strong Irish roots
Being four lads from Liverpool, there is little surprise that the Beatles have Irish links. Indeed, with the exception of Starr, each of the group’s members is of Irish descent.
Lennon’s father, Alfred, was a merchant sailor with Irish ancestry. Harrison’s mother, Louise, came from an Irish Catholic family, while both McCartney’s parents, Mary and James, came from Irish backgrounds.
This would come through in both Lennon and McCartney’s post-Beatles songwriting.
Both songwriters, along with their respective wives, protested British involvement in Ireland, with the former writing ‘The Luck of the Irish‘ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday‘, while the latter wrote ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish‘.
Adelphi Cinema, Dublin – the Beatles’ first Irish concert
The Beatles made their Irish debut at Dublin’s Adelphi Cinema, a once-glorious art modern movie palace that is now a car park on Abbey Street. They took to the stage for a matinee performance and an evening performance on 7 November 1963.
The group was on the cusp of releasing their second studio album, With the Beatles, which they had recorded earlier in the year. As you might expect, the setlist would feature some tracks off this album to whet the appetites of the Dublin crowd.
They opened up with a raucous rendition of McCartney’s ‘I Saw Her Standing There‘, the opening track of the band’s debut album, Please Please Me. Beloved non-album single ‘From Me to You‘ followed, to have an already excited crowd baying for more.
Another McCartney number – ‘All My Loving‘ – was the first With the Beatles track to get an airing, followed quickly by the album’s cover versions of Smokey Robinson’s ‘You Really Got a Hold on Me‘ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll Over Beethoven‘.
The band returned to Please Please Me, performing their cover of ‘Boys‘ by the Shirelles, before treating the crowd to another cover from their second album in the form of Meredith Wilson’s ‘Till There Was You‘.
To close out their set, the Beatles played an original – ‘She Loves You‘ – before Lennon put his vocal cords to the test with two more rasping covers – ‘Money (That’s What I Want)‘ by Barrett Strong and ‘Twist and Shout‘ by the Top Notes.
However, the Beatles’ first concert in Dublin proved to be their last as a riot broke out. The Irish Times ran a headline the following day that read, “Many arrested as city crowds riot,” alongside a photo of young fans breaking through a police barricade.
The trouble began when crowds leaving the matinee show clashed with fans queuing for the evening show. Fights broke out, cars were overturned, and over a dozen people were arrested, according to The Irish Times report.
The Beatles performed the following night (8 November) at the Ritz Cinema in Belfast. The Belfast crowd was treated to the same setlist as was played in Dublin, and thankfully, the gig passed without major incident.
King’s Hall, Belfast – a return to Irish soil
Though the Beatles never returned to Dublin – perhaps due to the crowd trouble – they treated the people of Belfast to another spectacle almost a year to the day of their Ritz Cinema gig.
This time, they appeared at the iconic King’s Hall, which would later host other music titans such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Diana Ross, Nirvana, and Bruce Springsteen.
The King’s Hall gig took place on 2 November 1964, just months after the release of the Beatles’ third studio album, A Hard Day’s Night. As such, the setlist comprised six songs from their most recent release.
The group picked things up where they left off, starting with their cover of ‘Twist and Shout’, followed by ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’.
However, with their growing confidence as songwriters, they relied less heavily on covers this time around.
Indeed, the only other cover song on the setlist was Little Richard’s classic ‘Long Tall Sally’, a song that still sometimes features in McCartney’s solo setlist today.
Other songs from A Hard Day’s Night on the setlist included the title track, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘Things We Said Today’, ‘I Should Have Known Better’, ‘If I Fell’, and Harrison’s ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance With You’.
‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ was the only track played from With the Beatles.
Just two years later, the Beatles retired from touring to focus their efforts on their studio sessions. The results are inarguable, producing such seminal albums as Revolver, The White Album, and Abbey Road.
However, their decision to retire from touring meant that the band never returned to Ireland in a professional capacity after this Belfast gig.
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