THEY'LL all be there at the Point tonight and tomorrow night, and why not? The umbrella is enormous and the bedfellows disparate, but is any gathering the worse for that?
There will be the sincerely devout, those who have thought it was an act of honour to God and his mother and the saints to sing words of homage and gratitude.
They will be as mystified by the huge attendance as they were by the sales of the record, and in their hearts they will hope that a renewal of faith is happening, since God has always moved in mysterious ways. They may think that there are more believers out there than was popularly assumed.
There will be the nostalgics, those who loved May altars, devotions on a summer evening, peopled having a sense of community and processions winding around familiar streets when shops had decorated their windows specially.
The hymns will remind them of a time when the world was innocent, and they can sing them without having to take on board some of what they consider the more troublesome aspects of the faith with which they have problems.
There will be those who would listen to the soaring voices of Regina Nathan and Frank Patterson if they were singing the bus timetable, and who would find peace in the soothing tones of the monks of Glenstal even if they didn't agree with a word that was being chanted.
There will be some young anthropologists who will listen astounded to the words that a previous generation took entirely for granted.
Sentiments wishing for martyrdom:
How sweet would be their children's fate
If they like them could die for
Thee.
Or requests to the Mother of God that she should
Remind Thy Son that He has paid
The price of our iniquity.
The audience will include the lonely and lost hoping to get back - that good feeling of long ago. There will be the frankly curious, there will be clergy and laity, people old enough to know what is being remembered, and mainly there will be those who want a great night out.
It's not going to be full of corporate hospitality and celebrity receptions.
The record which became such a runaway success was made for the people and the organisers insist that the show is exactly the same.
The Point Theatre expands and contracts to suit the kind of show that is being put on, and the organisers hope to have an audience of around 4,000 each night. They have had to restrict the numbers because they are making a video of the event and there needs to be room for six video cameras without obstructing anyone's view.
They don't expect the show to run and run. It's a happening, a one off (or in this case a two-off) performance.
The organisers say that the comparison with Riverdance is nonsensical, it is not a show that will go on the road and have a split.
But surely there will be another record? Surely no marketing people could let a success like that just disappear without trace?
They are 90 per cent sure there will be another record, mainly because the first one was only an hour long and the show tonight is two hours. There is plenty more to go in.
People have been sending them letters of outrage that this and that has not been included.
They even got a singing telegram of one particular hymn which they agree will have to be part of the Faith Two collection.
Already they hear that people are coming tonight by buses and trains from different parts of Ireland, and thousands more who will buy the video when it is released will wish they had been there.
The show will end with a Last Night of the Proms kind of medley, where the audience will join in and where it is hoped there will not be a dry eye.
Let's hope the young people who see them starry eyed coming out and singing their way back through the city will show the same wonderful tolerance that older people always afford to the Oasis and Boyzone fans.
Then we will truly have a pluralist and tolerant society.
