Cowboy hats at the ready! If you've been anywhere near Twitter today it won't come as a huge surprise to you to learn that Garth Brooks has just been announced as playing a couple of gigs in Croke Park this summer - his first Irish dates since playing the same venue over 17 years ago.

Brooks' list of achievements is practically endless. He's the number one biggest selling solo recording artist in U.S. history having shifted a mind-boggling 128 million albums and has been bestowed with just about every honour that the music industry has to offer over the course of his near 30 year career and we hold him personally responsible for the line-dancing craze which briefly enraptured Ireland in the mid-nineties.

Brooks himself was present at the announcement in Croke Park this afternoon, saying: "Before we go back on tour in the Fall of 2014, I want to challenge myself, the band, and crew. In '97 we were lucky enough to play Croke Park, the stadium was under construction. 130,000+ of some of the greatest fans in the world. I was quoted then as saying, 'when this stadium is finished, I would love to come back and try and fill it again...this time to the brink...and we're back to do just that."

The two concerts will take place on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th July. Tickets will cost you €65.45 and will go on sale from Thursday 30th January at 9am.