'There was so much hype': Memories of when Michael Jackson came to Cork for two gigs in 1988

Michael Jackson was a megastar when he played two concerts at Páirc Uí Chaoimh  as part of the Bad tour.  As the biopic of the late singer hits cinemas, we look back on that memorable weekend and you can share your own memories of those gigs at the end of the article

Michael Jackson with guitarist Jennifer Batten on stage at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork in 1988. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

There was no one like Michael Jackson. For a period in the 1980s, he really was the King of Pop. In the summer of 1988, during a glorious August bank holiday weekend, he performed  in Ireland for the first time with two gigs at Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh, as part of his Bad world tour. The city, which has arguably never experienced another showtime like it, went ‘wacko for Jacko’.

“The whole buzz was extraordinary,” says Eddie O’Hare, a photographer with the then Cork Examiner. “I was out doing photographs in town, around the streets, going to the makeshift campsites; there was a big one where Mahon Point Shopping Centre is today. I remember the Marina being packed full of tents. There would have been people sleeping in cars. Everybody was in brilliant form.”