Bernard O'Shea: If Garth Brooks plays the Milk Market in Limerick, I might go

I don't suffer of Fear of Missing Out anymore, not even for Electric Picnic, The Ploughing or Garth Brooks

9.9.2022 Garth Brooks performing this evening at Croke Park. PHOTO: Mark Stedman

I was well into my thirties before I knew what FOMO was. For those who still don't know, it means Fear of Missing Out. As a teenager and young adult, I knew exactly what the pain of FOMO meant, even if the acronym hadn't been invented then. 

I spent long afternoons as a sulky teenager lying on my bed imagining all the bands I missed seeing because my parents wouldn't let me go to one gig or another. They constantly harped on about something called a Leaving Cert being more critical. Then the shame of having to a, pretend the following Monday you went or b, just having to avoid everybody.