VIDEO: Fans sing loud as Ed Sheeran wows Croker

Ed Sheeran dazzled tens of thousands of devoted fans in Croke Park last night, every inch the honorary Irishman.

Sat, 25 Jul, 2015 - 01:00

Ed Power and Colette Keane

Wearing his trademark check shirt, runners, and a slightly more straggly beard, he took to the stage with an explosion of colour behind him. “My name is Ed and you have to sing along, and dance along, and clap along,” he encouraged. He didn’t need to, as every lyric was sung right back at him.

Just one man and his guitar, but he filled the stage and his songs filled the night sky, along with the screams of thousands of fans as the evening sun shone down.

seriously WOW!! #edcrokepark @edsheeran #youneedmeidontneedyou pic.twitter.com/qsQkmyozzn
— PERSONA (@laurasheeran) July 24, 2015

He assured everyone everything was live and that “hand on heart”, Ireland is his favourite place to play in the world: “You guys just put something in the water that makes ye just go a little more mental.”

A few hours before he performed to 80,000 fans, Sheeran took his seat at Croke Park for a press conference and faced the novel challenge of making himself heard. “Are you alright?” he half- joked to the scrum of photographers piled into the first row, their snapping cameras so loud Sheeran visibly struggled to compose his thoughts.

He shrugged as they clicked on. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Ed is just getting going! @edsheeran #EdCrokePark pic.twitter.com/UhkdFS7TgU
— iRadio (@ThisisiRadio) July 24, 2015

Sheeran, 24, is routinely described as the “nicest man in rock” and, wheeled out before the local media, radiated top-drawer humility. He delivered the mandatory spiel about loving Ireland, the Guinness, our appreciative audiences.

However, Sheeran, whose roots go back to Gorey, Co Wexford, genuinely seemed to mean it, as he revealed he was far less nervous than when preparing to headline London’s Wembley stadium a week earlier.

“I’m upset we can only do two Irish gigs,” he said. “I want to spend a whole week playing here. The Irish fans are… up for anything, you don’t even need to get them warmed up. All my best concerts were in Dublin.”

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This was all in contrast to Wembley where he had the distinct impression people were waiting to see him fail as he became the first artist to play a solo acoustic show at the stadium. “People were saying: ‘Do you think you can do it?’ And I started to think: ‘Well…I don’t really know’.

“[But] the Irish crowd has always been the best. At Wembley people came to see if I could do it — in Ireland they are coming to have a good time.”

During the show Irish band Kodaline joined Sheeran onstage for a rousing rendition of their hit, ‘All I Want’.