Eminem delivers second time around

Eight years on from disappointing fans in 2005, Detroit rapper Eminem made a reconciliatory return to Slane Castle on Saturday as he thrilled over 83,500 of his fans with an energetic set.
In 2005, Eminem withdrew from an appearance at the stately gardens of Lord Henry Mountcharles and his family, citing exhaustion as his reason for the late cancellation of the gig.
Eminem’s outrageous disregard for his hordes of fans sparked Lord Henry to denounce the artist and he suggested he would never have anything to do with the US artist again.
However, time is a great healer and, as Eminem got his own personal life together, the Meath aristocrat found forgiveness and welcomed back the 41-year-old with open arms.
It was clear that the Irish public had also forgiven Marshall Mathers (Eminem’s real name) as they flocked to Slane Castle in their tens of thousands for the much-anticipated show.
Despite the insistence of a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol from the gardai, there were obvious displays of excess from early on in the day.
In fairness to the hundreds of gardai on duty and hundreds more security staff, the best will and intentions in the world couldn’t have applied a total blanket ban on alcohol being carried by the tracksuit-clad and hoody-wearing fans who marched triumphantly down the Navan road and other minor arteries towards Slane Castle, proudly carrying their slabs of beer in open defiance of the garda ban.
The wisdom behind the blanket ban on alcohol was sound. Organisers of last Saturday’s concert didn’t want a repeat of the horrendous scenes that blighted the Swedish House Mafia gig in the Phoenix Park last summer and, thankfully, those disgraceful acts were not repeated in Slane.