Paschal Donohoe admits he’s a Swiftie as Simon Harris says Taylor Swift ‘welcome back to Wicklow any time’

The Taoiseach said: “We’re delighted to have her here in Ireland but she did take a pebble from the beach at Greystones and she sings about it in Sweet Nothings.

“But Greystones being my hometown, we’re very pleased that Taylor enjoys Wicklow. But she does ponder in the song, ‘Does the pebble ever miss Wicklow?’”

He added: “She’s very welcome back to Co Wicklow at any time. I’m not sure whether she’ll have time to visit this time, but she’s very welcome. And there are many more pebbles that we have in the beautiful town of Greystones.

“On a serious level, I won’t be going unfortunately as I don’t have a ticket. And I am really conscious that actually it’s a moment of great excitement for many, many, many people right across our country. I actually think this is going to be a great weekend for our capital city, between the GAA matches and Longitude at Marlay Park, and with Shania Twain at Malahide obviously.

“There’s a lot of really exciting events happening and I’m hoping that it’s going to be a really good weekend that people can enjoy, can celebrate and of course can can stay safe as well.

“So I hope people have a really good weekend.”

Meanwhile Minister Donohoe said he will be going and has been a Swiftie since seeing the US artist perform the last time in Dublin.

“I went to that gig bringing family, thinking it would be mainly other people in the group enjoying the gig but me, and she was amazing.

“I’ve been lucky enough to see lots and lots of gigs over the years and I never saw anything like that,” he told Newstalk Breakfast today.

Mr Donohoe said his favourite Taylor Swift song is the lesser-known Exile, featuring Bon Iver, from her eight studio album, Folklore.

He described Swift as “the leading artist of our era” adding that the next few nights are going to be amazing in Dublin.

Mr Donohoe added that all of her fans who have never seen her perform before are going to have their “dreams come through” because “she really is that good”.

He spoke to her stamina as an artist in terms of the breadth of her albums at just 34-years-old, as well as her world tour which he said is “unbelievable” in terms of the number of concerts she is doing.

The minister added that the number of gigs in Ireland over the last few weekends is incredible with Pearl Jam, LCD Sound System, Taylor Swift and Longtitude Festival this weekend.

“I would obviously be more comfortable at Taylor Swift that Longtitude, as the music there would be a little too young for me.

“To say I would be an outlier there at Longtitude, I think would be an understatement,” he added.