Michael Jackson wanted to buy a Neverland ranch in Ireland – but couldn’t find anywhere during the Celtic Tiger.
The King of Pop stayed in Ireland for six months in 2006 to record a new album after falling in love with the country.
And Michael asked Siobhan Learat-Byrne – the woman who arranged Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s Irish honeymoon – to find him a property for an Irish Neverland.
“He asked us to look for a property – he wanted to buy a Neverland ranch and have it in Ireland,” she said.
Jacko: Michael loved visiting Ireland
“But unfortunately that was the time of the Celtic Tiger so it wasn’t arranged.”
And Siobhan, who runs Adams & Butler, said things only went wrong for Michael when the international media came after him.
“Michael Jackson was particularly lovely from an Irish point of view. We had him here for three months and he was never hounded by the press,” she said.
“People knew, he was up in Luggala first and he loved it here. He was having a great time until the international press came. The Irish press didn’t hound him.
“Every so often they would write a story but left him in press and respected him. But then the international press came for the Ryder Cup.”
Arranged: Siobhan made it possible for Kim Kardashian to go cinema here
And speaking on 2FM, Siobhan told Colm Hayes how she was forced to drive Michael out of his first Irish property in a bid to escape the press.
“I met him because we got a phone call one morning, and it was: ‘Get us out of here. The international press are camped outside’,” she said.
“I drove down, they jumped into my car and I drove them around looking for properties. I had him and the nanny.
“He was very cool about the whole thing, very polite, very gentle and gracious. But I had to address him as the principle or the client. So you spoke about him in the third person.
