Half-way through the Cranberries' set you realise that every song is ingrained in one's long-term memory - despite your sheer disbelief that they can get away with as much as they do. Linger, Promises, Ode To My Family, Just My Imagination, Zombie, Animal Instinct, Salvation - every off-key warble, simplistic rhyme and stadium-rocking slab of bombast is welcomed like an old friend by the fans, while the parents and children seated along the sides of the barn that is Glen Greens simply look bored and slightly bewildered.
The poor sound quality doesn't help, with everything turned up to Spinal Tap's legendary levels, and with two guitars and occasionally two keyboards vying for space with the rib-rattling drums and bass, the whole often becomes a distorted mush of sound. Dolores O'Riordan is always audible, however, and struts and dances like she was born for the part of Irish Rock Chick.
The band's fabled first demo (containing Dreams and Linger) and early gigs, which aroused such a record company feeding frenzy, showcased a very different band: plangent, wistful and naive, if given to heavy-handed and monotonous arrangements. After a few years of stadium status, all the melody and emotive appeal have been sacrificed to lugubrious riffing and drum-pummelling, anonymous and relentless.
The crass and by now anachronistic Zombie ("With their tanks and their bombs and their guns and their bombs" - have they not heard of the peace agreement, not to mention good song-writing?) worked best through sheer power, but despite a terse "Great to be back", the waving of a Limerick flag handed up from the crowd and a call-and-response routine during Go Your Own Way, Dolores & Co seemed curiously detached from the enthusiastic audience.