The Rolling Stones are to play at Slane Castle on August 18th. The band previously played there in 1982, when they were the first international act to headline the Co Meath venue.
The Slane show comes exactly a year after the Stones were due to appear at Dublin's Phoenix Park. However, a legal challenge taken by MCD Promotions against a decision by the Office of Public Works to award the contract for the concert to a rival promoter led to the Phoenix Park show not proceeding.
Yesterday afternoon, Mick Jagger announced details of the Slane event and other dates on the band's European tour.
The Irish gig is one of 27 dates the band will be playing across Europe this summer. This leg of their "A Bigger Bang" tour will kick off in Belgium on June 5th and includes a rare festival appearance for the Stones on the Isle of Wight on June 10th.
Tickets for the Irish show, priced from €86.50 to €156.50, will go on sale next Friday morning (March 30th).
It will be the first big gig to grace Slane since Madonna played there in 2004. The following year, Eminem's mooted appearance at Slane and his entire sold-out European tour were scrapped due to medical problems the rapper was experiencing at the time.
Slane Castle owner Lord Henry Mount Charles said he was "very excited" at the prospect of the veteran band returning to the venue after 25 years. However, he believes it will be "somewhat different" to the band's 1982 show in many respects. "It's going to happen in the dark," he said, "so it's going to be a big production with a big light show. This is big stuff." He also said that the promoters will be putting in a quantity of seats for the show which will reduce the venue capacity to 60,000.
Music industry observers believe this may not be the only Slane show this summer. There is increasing speculation that The Police may play there in September.
For the Rolling Stones, though, the Irish gig should be another lucrative night out. Since the tour kicked off in 2005, the band has visited 16 countries and played 110 shows to 3.5 million fans. According to music trade magazine Billboard, the tour has generated ticket receipts of $437 million (€328 million).