From Trina:
Well, we waited and waited patiently in Ireland for Madonna to grace our shores and she did not disappoint. I saw her 3 shows in San Jose, CA, and one in MSG in NYC BUT to see her in Ireland was spectacular. It was interesting to see how she would deal with no walkway but every song was pitch perfect, the crowed reaction was amazing....imagine being one of 80,000 singing Like A Prayer.
She was about 45 minutes late on stage as it kept raining and they had to wipe down the stage....once she came on it was all systems go. She even wore an 'Irish Do It Better' t-shirt which was a really nice touch.
It rained a lot during 'Nothing Fails' so she had to have a crew member hold an umbrella up over her and shelter her as she sang and played guitar. The castle to the right of the stage and the full moon to the left made for some great video images.
Listening to people coming out of the venue (yes it did take over 2 hours to get out of the grounds) people were well-impressed, several people used the word 'deadly' to describe the show - that's Irish slang for 'Madge you were the bomb'.
Thank you for an amazing evening and I hope you had a hot whiskey to warm you up as you mentioned you were cold. Now I can return to San Francisco a very happy camper!

From Greg And Emma:
I just wanted to say what a totally AMAZING experience we had last night! We arrived at Slane early in the morning and queued at the gates from around 1pm. We were given a pink band to wear around our arms and were told to go to the front of the stage. When we got there, a lady came up to us and asked if we big Madonna fans - of course we were! We were given purple Re-Invention Tour 2004 wrist bands and told we were going to be put in a small pit right inside the stage area! Strictly no cameras and phones had to be switched off.
It was hard to believe the queen of pop was going to be walking on the cat walk all around us! When she came on the stage is was just incredible! She was only 10 feet away and walked less than 5 feet away as she walked on the cat walk. She looked at us right in the eyes and smiled and pointed at us several times. Keith Duffy from Westlife came into our area and stood and watched the show from there.
Madonna put on a superb performance despite rain early in the show trying to spoil things. She said in a funny voice 'rain, rain go away!'.
We are going to see her in Paris on Wed 1st and cannot wait to see the show and take in the rest of it. She was just so close to us that you couldn't take in any other person than Madonna! Paris will be good, but nothing will ever beat the view we got at Slane!

From Mario:
Guys, the show was amazing! Slane Castle´s arena is AWESOME! It was a rainy day, well actually there were a lot of showers, but at the moment of truth the rain stopped. The crew were drying up the stage up until the start of the concert and the catwalk was on the ground all the time.
We were in the pit and had a great view of all kind of details. She had a different corset to the other UK dates (it was the same gold one she had worn for all the US dates) and wore a body-stocking during the opening numbers. Then she wore a black sporty jacket for 'Deeper and Deeper' saying 'It's to cold up here' and when Siedah Garrett noticed the jacket, they both grinned at each other.
Then she wore a suit jacket in 'Nothing Fails' and had to be protected from the drizzle by an umbrella. The skater boy fell twice and it seemed that nobody noticed, but one of the band laughed at the skateboarder's misfortune.
Her t-shirt for 'Crazy For You' said 'IRISH DO IT BETTER' and all the crowd went bananas when they noticed. I went to Wembley on the 26 August and Slane's show was MUCH BETTER: the ambiance, the castle, the threatening rain, Iggy Pop and his crazy dancing, Paul Oakenfold and his remixes, the view of the castle, the helicopters bringing the VIP people to the show, the running to get the front line in the pit, the fireworks at the end....was amazing.
Now I'm going to see her in Paris but I am sure it won't be as good as this show....

From Eamon:
Finally after all these years I get to see Madonna and I get to see her at home! The concert totally blew me away, her stage presence is phenomenal. All the stories about poor ticket sales seems to be rubbish as the place must have been at or very close to it's 80,000 capacity. The rain before the concert was pretty bad and she was about 45 minutes late getting on the stage. Mostly because they had to dry it off. It didn't matter though as she was so worth it.
She had to wear a long-sleeve vest under the corset for Vogue as she was so cold. With the amount of activity on the stage I don't know how she was cold but I guess out in the open in Ireland is new thing to Madonna. When she got the crowd to sing Material Girl with her she told us afterwards 'That was excellent', naturally the crowd went crazy then! When she came out for Nothing Fails she was wearing an extra jacket as she was so cold and a crew member had to hold an umbrella over her which she seemed to find rather amusing!
She commented on how she finally got here with 'Jesus Christ, what took me so long?' To a massive roar. The biggest roar of the night though must have been after she took some water and shouted 'Cheers! I'll see you all down the pub afterwards!'
During Don't Tell Me when she sings 'Tell the sun not to shine' she followed it with 'well maybe today'. After Papa Don't Preach when she was spinning around she then shouted out 'I am just trying to get warm'. The walk-way was down for the whole show and it was quite low so she was really down beside the fans when she was out on it.
I have to say that all the criticisms of the imagery in the show forcing Kabbalah and anti-war at people is nonsense. Regardless of what she believes in, nothing was forced and with the Kabbalah imagery it was more of a case that they were interesting images rather than a sermon.
Overall the outdoor venue didn't affect the show at all, it seemed to go very smoothly and the effect was superb - I did wonder if the show would work outdoors and boy did it. At the end of the show she thanked us and said 'Ireland, you're the best!' We also got the confetti and were then treated to a bit of a firework show.
I have dreamed of seeing her live and she lived up to all my expectations and exceeded them. The cold and the rain couldn't dampen my enthusiasm at all and nor did it affect her performance - just hope she doesn't catch any sort of a cold/flu now, wouldn't want her to miss any of the shows she still has to do.

From Peter:
Well, what can I say that hasn't been said already about Madonna's first Irish show - it was well worth the wait! I was worried about the logistics of the show being outdoors and in the heavy rain, but she pulled it off with ease and the show was simply spectacular! I was at the first show in Earl's Court, but she seemed to be having much more fun here and definitley had a sense of humour about the awful weather. The rain certainly didn't dampen the spirits of the 80,000 strong crowd either, and they gave the Queen Of Pop the warmest of Irish welcomes.
There were a couple of changes to the show, namely the extra layers to keep warm and the umbrella being held over her to keep her dry during Nothing Fails. Also, at the end of Holiday the screens didn't close around her and the dancers, instead an Irish flag appeared on the screens and Madonna claimed 'Ireland, you're the best!' while being lowered beneath the stage.
I was also lucky enough to spot some of the dancers and band during Iggy Pop's set, including Stuart Price and Monte Pitman, in the front pit area (which you needed a pink pass to get into - this wasn't the stage pit, but the next best thing for the best way to get a decent view at this huge outdoor gig). Jonas Akerlund was also there with just one camera man and a couple of other crew. They were all just hanging out during Iggy's lively set.
All in all it was a wet, windy, tiring but immensely enjoyable day and a totally awesome experience! I would definitely say that it was better than the first London show (which blew me away!) and I can't wait till Wednesday night for Paris!

From Paul:
Just a quick note about the concert in Slane last night. The concert started late because of a shower at about 9pm. However once the stage was dried the weather stayed mostly dry but cool. The set was amazing. Just to the left of the stage was a full moon and to the right was Slane Castle which was totally lit up. I must say I was really impressed with the show. She looked great, her voice was better than ever and her energy made me ashamed as I am 29 years old and lazy as hell. The show made me feel like I was 12 years old.
Being in the middle of 80,000+ Madonna mad fans singing and dancing to Into The Groove, Music etc. was an amazing experience. It really looked like Madge was enjoying herself too. Hats off to Madge....nobody even comes close. During the grand finale the sky erruped with fireworks, again with the full moon behind. It was the perfect ending to a perfect show.

From Aman:
This concert was even better then the one I went to see on the 19th of August at Earls Court. I was one of the first to go running in as soon as the doors opened at 3.45pm, and ran straight to the front of the barriers, and to my surprise Madonna was rehearsing on stage in a green outfit for at least a few minutes. She looked and smiled at us and said that the second part of the show starts at 9.20pm.
The show did start at 9.20pm, and all I can say that it was AMAZING. You could easily tell that she was loving every minute, apart from the weather. The firework display towards the end was just spectacular....!

From Shane:
I was at Slane yesterday. I was in the pit and I was like 10 feet away from her when she came down to the catwalk. It started late cause of heavy rain I presume. She came on to Vogue and was raised high on a platform.
She said sorry for taking so long to come to Ireland , she said she was cold and wet at one stage and said she was only spinning around because she was cold and asked the audience to warm her up which received a huge cheer.
She was covered by an umbrella at one point during a guitar solo. She sang to everyone there, by picking out the people by the trees and on the hill and at the front etc where I was!
She has being reviewed badly by the Irish media and by certain people....the media have complained that the show was too short at 1 1/2 hours, I feel like it was 2 hours at least, they complained it was late, that couldn't be helped with the rain, some person complained about madonna swearing. She asked God to make it stop raining and it stopped :)
Anyway this was my first chance to see Madonna live, I've loved her since I was 7 and I'm 24 now....and well I still can't believe I saw her!