Look! It’s George Harrison as a child on O’Connell Street…

THE BEATLES PLAYED their first and only Irish concerts fifty years ago this week; whipping up mass hysteria as they whistled through a series of short-sharp shows in Belfast and Dublin.

Much like the GPO in 1916 and U2′s Dandelion Market concerts in the late 70s — those who claimed to have been in attendance far outstrip the numbers who actually were. Believe it or not, the four-piece were on stage for only around 50 minutes when they played Dublin’s Adelphi Cinema on Middle Abbey Street in 1963 — completing two 25 minute sets in concerts staged at 6.30pm and 9 o’clock. Thirteen years earlier, screaming teenage girls were conspicuous by their absence when a seven-year-old George Harrison strolled along O’Connell Street sporting what looks like an early version of the Beatles mop-top haircut. The photo was taken by Arthur Fields — a Jewish-Ukranian street photographer who became a Dublin institution; it’s estimated he took over 180,000 images on and around O’Connell Bridge during his career before he retired in 1984.

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Source: The Journal, Ireland

Photo Credit: Arthur Fields