Prominent Politician Says Dublin Missed A Huge Trick For Taylor Swift Gigs

Dublin should have gone ‘one better’ than Liverpool in welcoming Taylor Swift fans to the home of ‘the original Swiftie’, according to a prominent city politician, playwright and artist.

Independent councillor Mannix Flynn said Dublin City Council has missed a trick by not planning anything special to capitalise on the invasion of fans coming for Swift’s three Aviva Stadium shows at the end of the month.

In Liverpool, where the pop megastar will play a trio of shows two weeks ahead of her Dublin gigs, the council has set up a special task force to turn the city into Taylor Town, which is expected to generate millions of pounds for the local economy.

Mr Flynn said the capital should ‘go one better than Liverpool’.

He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The Swifties are coming to the town of the original Swiftie – the right honourable Dean Jonathan Swift who gave us Gulliver’s Travels.’

Mr Flynn said ‘thousands upon thousands’ of visitors already come to see the ‘contributions’ of the world-famous author and cleric and his burial site at St Patrick’s Cathedral and that his legacy should be pounced on when his namesake is in town.

In Liverpool, the council has commissioned Instagram-friendly artworks to be displayed around the city, each representing one of TayTay’s 11 studio albums.

The University of Liverpool will host a day of lectures about her, ending with a karaoke session. Research by Barclays estimates the average fan in the UK will splash out just under the equivalent of €1,000 on restaurants, hotels, new outfits and merchandise, providing a staggering £1bn (€1.2bn) to the economy over her 15 shows there.

Liverpool council’s cabinet member for tourism, Harry Doyle, called their initiative ‘the cheapest PR campaign we’ve ever done’. It will cost £65,000 (€76,000) but could bring in millions.

Calling for a similar initiative here, Mr Flynn said: ‘Every single thing that the city can do, it should do. We should basically roll out everything we have. These are visitors that are spending serious money on a concert ticket, they’re coming to see their hero, and we have a lot to offer them by way of other attractions.’

‘We’re a serious capital city with a lot of visitors and “that’ll do” productions just won’t do. People come up for GAA matches and then they run out of the city as soon as the match is over. Hundreds of thousands of people come up to Croke Park and by the evening they’re gone.’

The councillor said the capital is capable of hosting an extravagant event as recently as last month, with the same stadium where Swift will play hosting the Europa League final.

‘It’s a magnificent stadium, it’s a terrific location, there’s plenty of bars et cetera along the way. We set up a fanzone for that – we really should begin the process of setting up fanzones and putting on a spectacle for Swift fans.’

In response to queries from the MoS, the council confirmed it ‘does not have any special plans similar to those proposed for Liverpool’.

A council spokesman said: ‘There are multiple large-scale events on in Dublin city and county on the weekend concerned, including concerts in Fairview Park, Dublin Pride Festival and Block Party, Longitude Festival in Marlay Park, a concert in Malahide Castle and All Ireland Football quarter-finals over two days in Croke Park.’

‘Therefore, further or enhanced event plans for Dublin city and county over the weekend concerned is not something that has been considered to be appropriate given the number of important events already scheduled.’