Entertainment
Couple who got engaged at Eras Tour share their joy, as Taylor Swift takes to the stage for her final night in Dublin
The US singer’s three-night performance will see 150,000 Swifties at the Aviva stadium between Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the most lucrative set of concerts in history.
She is playing the final of her three blockbuster Eras Tour dates in Dublin before heading back to Europe.
Famous faces spotted at tonight’s show include Julie Roberts and Stevie Nicks.
One of the many memorable moments of the weekend included a proposal during Swift’s Love Story.
Alan Corley (26) knelt down on the floor of the Aviva Stadium and proposed to his boyfriend of four years, Aaron Hogan (25).
“The minute I knelt down, everything went quiet and it was like this kind of static in the back of my head,” Mr Corley told the Irish Independent.
“I’m very much an introvert, but for some reason I was never nervous about the idea of doing it in public at a Taylor Swift concert because I know the type of people that Swifties are.
“They’re just so supportive and full of love. I knew it was going to be just a really lovely moment and Aaron has always said that he hates the idea of public proposals except at Taylor Swift concerts.”
“He took what I told him and ran with it,” he added.
Mr Corley revealed that he had been thinking of proposing in this way since the couple bought their tickets to the Eras Tour a year ago.
The touching moment, which has since gone viral after it was posted by an attendee on X.
“I never actually considered the idea that I could end up online or anything. So I didn’t even notice the crowd, to be honest,” he said.
“By the time we got home there were videos on TikTok with thousands of views, thousands of likes. There were people posting pictures online and when Aaron came to pick me up at work the next day we were recognised in the street!”
The significance of getting engaged during the concert and during Pride Month was not lost on either of them. “I never imagined being that open with myself. I only went to Pride for the first time last year. So to be able to do it in public with people that I knew would, would just shower us with love, it really genuinely meant the world,” Mr Hogan said.
On Saturday night Swift appeared to be caught off guard by the “actually crazy” reaction from Irish fans to her show, saying she would remember it for the rest of her life.
She was treated to fans chanting “ole, ole, ole” for a lengthy period during Saturday’s show, and Swift seemed surprised by the reaction, according to social media videos.
Swift told the audience: “Oh my god, here’s the thing, we’ve done like I dunno, we’ve done like 110 shows on this tour, something like that and like this … this is the first time like, I really don’t know what to say, my band and I are just looking at each other with our mouths hanging open.
“That was actually crazy, like we’re trying to be prepared, but we’re not prepared for the level that you’re on, Dublin.”
She also said: “What you just did for us, we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. We love you so much.”
Swift also played a mash-up of her songs This Love and Ours, as well as The Albatross and Dancing With Our Hands Tied during the gig as her surprise tracks.
On Friday she told fans that it was five years since she had last visited Ireland.
“Nobody does it like you. You know that right?” she said, going on to call Irish people “unmatched storytellers”, adding they had the “best accents”.
During a rendition of her chart-topper We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, a dancer told the crowd “Pog mo thoin” – a cheeky Irish-language phrase meaning ‘kiss my ass’.
She is heading to Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena for her next three shows, running from Thursday to Saturday.
Swift will then plays dates in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria before returning to the UK in August for five nights at Wembley Stadium in London.