Hello, and welcome to the blog. I’m Fin Brennan. There has been a lot of focus on journalists lately, what with all the RTE controversy, so that’s been on the brain lately. I watched Elton John at Glastonbury last night. I don’t know how these performers can perform at all hours. I was fit for bed at 10 pm. This was the second time I thought that over the weekend. The first was when Kurt, Fred and I saw Iron Maiden at the 3Arena. That is what I am going to talk about today.

You will be happy to know that Gary is now at 100% again so I could drive to Dublin this time. As someone forced to use public transport again, I was incredibly grateful to have my car back for long distances.

I drove to my usual LUAS stop and only thought of something when I arrived. I should be getting into the habit of double-checking that public transport is running as normal. The answer was “kind of”. It was Dublin Pride Festival in Dublin on Saturday. As someone who is not a community member, I had no idea. The LUAS was running to my stop this time. That was a good start. I got on the LUAS and travelled to my stop. There were rainbows everywhere. It was quite spectacular. I was happy to see it, especially given the past few years. Dublin was very busy. Dublin was very colourful. I should remind you that I was going to an Iron Maiden concert.

As I made my way to the arena, things got a bit…blacker. As someone who wouldn’t call themselves an Iron Maiden fan, I knew they must make a killing from merchandise sales. I saw maybe ten people on the LUAS to the arena wearing Iron Maiden shirts: all different ones. Cut to my arrival, and I was there a good hour before Kurt and Fred arrived. I just hung around and watched people of all ages (there was a toddler in a Maiden shirt, too), gender and hair lengths assemble outside. The show was sold out. I wasn’t surprised. Again, with my limited knowledge, I know if you think heavy metal, you think Iron Maiden. We had seats adjacent to the stage. They weren’t that bad. Standing for that long didn’t excite me this time.

I am a simple guy. The one thing I ask for when I see a band live is showmanship. I knew Bruce Dickinson was known for it. I was well informed. He put on an incredibly energetic performance. You can not convince me that man is in his early 60s. And he is one of the younger members. As someone who knows nothing about guitars, I understood that these musicians knew what they were doing. I am not surprised about a band performing for almost 50 years.

I am glad I went. I can now say I have seen Iron Maiden live. That is a cool thing to say. Anyway, I digress. I have the final writers’ group meeting before the summer break tonight. Boy, I am going to miss it for the next few months. That’s enough from me for one day. Thank you for reading. Rock on. Thank you for your time.