Fans of Material girl Madonna spent almost € 12,000 a minute yesterday on tickets for her concert at Slane Castle on August 29.

The country went mad for Madonna as fans paid out over € 3.5 million in the first five hours of ticket sales. Eager fans had to fork out € 88.50 per ticket.

Anxious to prove they were ecstatic about Esther as Madonna calls herself these days her supporters snapped up over half of the 80,000 tickets on sale for her first-ever Irish concert at the Co Meath venue.

Madge, as husband Guy Ritchie likes to call her, stands to pocket at least € 2m from ticket sales.

Although the concert did not sell out within hours, unlike U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Slane shows, concert promoters MCD said sales were still ahead of expectations.

Article by Seán McCárthaigh, Irish Examiner