If Wagner is just another composer, why do people join Wagner societies? The tradition was begun by the composer, when he was trying to get together enough money to build an opera house at Bayreuth - and nowadays, the difficulty of getting hold of tickets for Bayreuth accounts for much of the appeal.
A wait of a decade or more is not uncommon, and as affiliated societies are entitled to an annual allocation . . . well, say Wagnerians, every little helps.
The Wagner Society of Ireland was founded after the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland's Ring cycle in Limerick in 2002 and it has, according to founder and current chairman Christopher McQuaid, more than 70 members. For an annual subscription of €50 a year, members can attend lectures, recitals, and social get-togethers. But McQuaid admits that persuading young people to join has been something of a problem.
"This year we're giving five places free to young people. We already have two lads from Cork who are attending the University of Limerick and a boy from Donegal who's up in Letterkenny doing computer studies. So we've two spaces left," he says.
McQuaid joined the London Wagner society after he attended his first Wagner opera at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
"I wanted to learn more about the music," he says. "It's transcendental - spiritual. It certainly inspires me. And I think music is more important now than ever. We seem to be going backwards, if you take what the Americans are doing in Iraq and people being tortured and all the rest of it. In my opinion, we need music more than ever in our world. The Ring is always relevant because it deals with greed, it deals with murder, it deals with all sorts of human frailties. And the music is absolutely beautiful."
Does he understand why people sometimes say they hate Wagner? "No, I don't," he says. "There's nothing there to hate. I understand that there are other issues. But you have to listen to the music - all of it, not just selected parts. Then come back to me and say, 'Well, I hate Wagner because . . .'."
Finally, has he any hints for would-be Wagnerians? "You have to put the work in," he says. "If you go to a Wagner opera, you must know what's happening and you must know the scenes because you'd go mad otherwise. So you have to get the CDs, and go through the libretto and try to understand it. Then you'll be fine."
