Kodaline have too many fans for a hometown concert in Swords

"We tried to play an outdoor show there for this year but we could not get permission, so we have to settle for nearby Malahide Castle," Steve, who is pictured here with gorgeous girlfriend Diana Bunici at the new Top Gun: Maverick premiere in Dublin last weekend, tells the Sunday World.

But while around 20,000 fans may be flocking to see the High Hopes tunemakers play in Malahide on June 17 we can reveal there are plans for a different act to play outdoors at Swords Castle this year - Nathan Carter.

Fingal county council insiders maintain that with the amount of fans Kodaline wanted to attract into Swords Castle there would have been too many of them for the 'eight-minute rule' of evacuation under health and safety rules.

Sources suggest it's also not commercially viable to stage a Kodaline concert at Swords Castle given its limited capacity.

The 800-year-old castle has undergone massive renovation in recent years and has held comedy shows in a marquee on its grounds, as well as plays and music events in its onsite chapel.

A planned Castle Goes Country series of concerts later this year, including Nathan Carter, will be the first outdoor shows to be staged at Swords Castle.

"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to facilitate a gig of the capacity envisaged by Kodaline at Swords Castle, so we agreed with the band's promoter that a summer concert at Malahide Castle next month would be a better fit," a Fingal County Council spokesperson said.

"It's particularly disappointing we couldn't take it forward given how popular the band's performance in the Chapel was as part of the Courage livestream series during the lockdown in 2020."

The council hopes that there may be some scope to work with Kodaline at Swords Castle in the future.

Kodaline's band members hail from Swords and some of them, including Garrigan, attended the local school, Coláiste Choilm