It’s not every morning you get to see five women in their late 30s regress to their teenage years as they discuss Westlife. We’re in speech therapist Gemma Grennan’s kitchen in Newtownmountkennedy, in Co Wicklow. Her mother is here collecting her five-year-old, Tom. There are some very tasty buns made by Gemma’s husband Marc on the counter. All five women have jobs to go to, but there’s a stack of photos, ticket stubs and cassettes on the table brought by civil servant and “hoarder” Rachael Myles and they are talking enthusiastically, warmly and a little rabidly about their love for Westlife, who they will be seeing together for the umpteenth time this month for the band’s “homecoming residency” at Dublin’s 3Arena.
They have been friends for around 25 years. They’re all from Bray, but also “priced out of Bray”, and all have very young children. “We’re in the trenches,” says Catherine Egan, an accountant.
They have agreed to talk to me about their friendship in parallel with their Westlife fandom which has prompted 24 hours of WhatsApp reminiscing among themselves. The night before, teacher Sarah Keane’s fiance texted Gemma’s husband to say: “Have you been hearing as much about Westlife as I have?”
“The WhatsApp was on fire,” says Gemma. “We were wondering if we could get a group deal on Botox.”
“Girls, we said in the chat we need to come across like we’re cool, and not weird,” says Sarah Keane.
They were convinced I would be bringing a member of Westlife along. “I said to Marc, if you see I’ve taken off my wedding ring you’ll know what happened,” says Gemma.
I hate to disappoint them, but I just brought Nick, the Irish Times photographer, who ordered them around and repeatedly told them to “behave”.
They first booked Westlife tickets in 2001 by queuing overnight at Golden Discs in Bray with Sarah Keane’s dad sleeping across the road in his car (he also bought all their tickets for years with his credit card). Booking tickets last October, things were very different. “I was in the queue to have a C-section,” says Gemma.
Westlife fans: Catherine Egan, Sarah Keane, Sarah Kehoe, Rachael Myles and Gemma Grennan in earlier gig-going days. ‘I don’t feel we are our age,’ says Grennan
“I had a small baby,” says Sarah Keane. “Cat was two months from giving birth.”
“My baby was a week old,” says Rachael.
The fifth friend, Sarah Kehoe, a nurse, also has small kids. When one of the others says, “Sarah, that’s not a Westlife shirt!” of her Rolling Stones T-shirt, she raises her hands up and says, in her defence: “Three kids!”
Like most good friends, they like to tease each other. When, at different points, Sarah Keane and Gemma point out they are, at 38, a year younger than the other three, the others say: “Here we go” or “You already said that!”
The first time they ever saw Westlife was when the band were supporting Boyzone back when they were still called Westside. “I used to go to Boyzone concerts because my second-slash-third cousin is Mikey Graham,” says Gemma, and they all tease her for the name-dropping.
Westlife: Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne and Kian Egan performing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at London’s Royal Albert Hall last October. Photograph: Nicky J Sims/Getty
“I went to Boyzone for my first communion, but the whole road went together,” says Rachael. “And we went to see Five, but our dads sat three rows behinds us. With Westlife we went by ourselves. So it was a coming-of-age thing.”
“We were just the right age,” says Catherine.
“But still not old enough to pay for the tickets,” says Gemma. “Sarah [Keane]’s mam and dad used to give their credit card.”
Me and Sarah [Kehoe] wrote to Shane’s mam in her coffee shop in Sligo. We were basically stalking
— Rachael Myles
“We had credit cards by our J1 but we still got Sarah’s mam and dad to do it,” says Rachael.
“We saw them in O2 in the Park as well,” says Gemma. “We used to write into the Sunday World. [Sarah]’s dad used to drive us in at half six in the morning so we could get into the pit.” (They want to give all their “hardworking and kind” parents a nod.)
“I remember knowing I was obsessed when they did the Rose of Tralee and [the camera] passed by Westlife and Shane winked and I lost my tiny little mind,” says Rachael. “I made my mam record it the next day when it was repeated. Shane winking.”
Their teenage years were rife with obsessive Westlife fan behaviour. They’d iron free transfers of the Westlife logo on to their T-shirts. When Westlife were featured in pop magazines like Smash Hits, they’d rifle through the newsagents to make sure they got the edition with the pull-out poster of their favourite member.
Westlife fans: The friends from Bray at a previous concert 
Westlife concert ticket stub belonging to ‘hoarder’ Rachael Myles. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Westlife tapes in Gemma Grennan’s home in Newtownmountkennedy. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
“I had a Westlife cut-out in my room,” says Rachael.
“One year, Vodaphone brought out a Westlife phone,” says Sarah Keane. “And I got it.”
Rachael, who is generally considered to be the superfan of the group, was also once asked out by an early boyfriend who used the lyrics to the Westlife song Obvious to do so.
He won’t mind being brought into this? They all laugh. “He’ll say ‘why didn’t you ask me along?’” says Gemma. He loved Westlife too.
What did their peers think of their love for Westlife? They laugh. “In the youth club we went to we got trolled to hell about loving Westlife,” says Rachael. “You’d get one song of Westlife on the youth club stereo, next to Nirvana and Snoop.” (They all love this Bray youth club, by the way, and wish kids today could have such fun offline experiences.)
“We had a bit of nerdiness maybe,” says Catherine.
[ Emer McLysaght: Westlife deserve the title of Ireland’s greatest manbandOpens in new window ]
“I don’t think we’ve ever been overly cool people,” says Gemma.
Have they ever met any members of the band? Sarah Keane says she once met early Westlife evacuee Brian McFadden at a bowling alley and got his autograph.
“Me and Sarah [Kehoe] wrote to Shane’s mam in her coffee shop in Sligo,” says Rachael.
“We were basically stalking,” says Sarah Kehoe. She didn’t respond.
Would their younger selves be surprised to find they are still going to Westlife concerts in 2026? They laugh. “Sixteen-year-old me thought I’d have five kids, be a GAA mom and a teacher,” says Rachael. She did study to be a teacher, she says, “but I came right out of college in the crash … We’re 80s babies. We were told, ‘It can only get better.’ But I couldn’t get permanency. I hung on in college as long as I could. I was working at a job in the supermarket. One year I applied for 115 teaching jobs. Then my mam saw an ad for the Civil Service in the paper.”
Westlife fans: ‘No matter how long it’s been for us all to meet – and it’s never usually that long anyway – it’s just the same’
Sarah Kehoe finished her training just as there was an embargo on hiring in the HSE. “There were no nursing jobs,” she says. “A hospital came over from the UK and interviewed us all and gave us all jobs there. Thirty-two of us went over to this hospital … And then I went to Australia.”
“We surprised Sarah in London [with a visit],” says Catherine. “Well semi-surprised. Rachael accidentally told her.”
“I didn’t understand group chat,” says Rachael.
“I was in college and I did business management in DIT,” says Sarah Keane who later retrained as a teacher, “and I remember everyone being like, ‘We’re going to have to go away for jobs.’ That was the given.”
“There was a period there when we were at more emigration parties than 21sts,” says Rachael. “I was at a leaving do every third weekend.”
“Where we stayed on our J1 there was 30 Irish lads who’d done commerce and they’d tell us the exchange rate was good so we’d all go take our money out before [the Euro] dipped again the next day,” says Gemma.
Why did Sarah Kehoe come back from Australia? “Rachael decided to get married,” she says. “When I came back for her wedding I realised I’m meant to be here. So I’m back thanks to Rachael.”
Their friendships have changed over the years but have stayed strong. “We used to go to holiday together, go on our J1s together, and nights out every weekend,” says Gemma. “Now a couple of us might be able to meet up.”
Going to the Westlife concert is lovely because we’ve planned it a year in advance. We have dinner booked. We’ll all get to sit and have a conversation without kids, without grannies having to come to take kids for walks, which is nice
— Gemma Grennan
“Or we have to bring our children,” says Catherine. “And you’re shouting across each other to have a conversation. But no matter how long it’s been for us all to meet – and it’s never usually that long anyway – it’s just the same. There’s comfort in that.”
“There’s always questions flying in the WhatsApp,” says Sarah Keane. “How much Calpol can I give, based on my child’s age?”
“What do you do for cradle cap?” says Gemma.
“Mam was saying the other day how nice it is that she remembers us getting ready for gigs,” says Sarah Keane. “I’m getting emotional now. We’re all mams now and we’ll be buying those kids tickets on our credit cards in 15 years’ time.”
They reminisce over different Westlife gigs they’ve attended. There was always lots of screaming, says Sarah Keane. “You didn’t even really hear them sing. Whoever’s in front of you is getting you in their ear and it’s chain reaction of that right to the front.”
Rachael maintains that at one gig they attended she waved at Shane Filan and he waved back. The others are sceptical. “How many people are in that stadium? Fifty thousand,” says Sarah. “How many people waved at him?”
Is Rachael as big a fan now as she was then? She laughs. “I had a row with my sister three years ago because she missed the stop in Sligo town for the Westlife mural,” she says. “I didn’t talk to her until we hit the main road home after having a lovely weekend in Sligo.”
“2012 was the farewell tour,” says Gemma.
“That was really emotional,” says Catherine.
“And then there was a break until 2019,” says Gemma. “That was Croker. And it was raining. I had a Mac on. Then there was the Aviva.”
Westlife fans: ‘We used to go to holiday together, go on our J1s together, and nights out every weekend’
“I won the tickets on East Coast FM,” says Rachael.
“She’s their biggest competition winner,” says Gemma.
“I’m just in the car so much,” says Rachael. “All my childcare is up in Bray with my mam and stuff.”
Do they try to get their children into Westlife? “When I have Molly [her daughter] in the car and I play Westlife, she says: ‘No Mama, Bruce,’” says Sarah Keane. “She loves Bruce Springsteen.”
They wonder where the time went. “I don’t feel we are our age,” says Gemma. “I feel 23 in my head. Sometimes we would go out every Thursday, Friday and Saturday … I couldn’t tell you the last time we were in a nightclub together.”
“A hen maybe or a wedding,” says Sarah Keane.
“But our banter is still the same,” says Gemma. “That’s why going to the Westlife concert is lovely as well because we’ve planned it a year in advance. We have dinner booked. We’ll all get to sit and have a conversation without kids, without grannies having to come to take kids for walks, which is nice.”
They are, for the record, pretty sure they will cry at this gig. They begin speculating about what Westlife will play in their “fast” section. As purveyors primarily of ballads, this is always an interesting question for fans. They discuss their favourite songs in general. “Hey Whatever,” says Gemma. “That’s a banger.” (There is some dissent on this.)
“If Westlife read this, I think they should play I Lay My Love on You because it’s such an underrated song,” says Rachael.
“The best part of the concert is when When You’re Lookin’ Like That comes in,” says Gemma, and she dances for a moment.
“We were dancing like mams way before we became mams,” says Sarah Kehoe.
“You don’t feel out of place when you go to a Westlife concert,” says Sarah Keane. “I’d say half the grannies and aunties in the world are babysitting. Some concerts you go to and you think, ‘Oh Lord, I’m so old’. But you go into a Westlife concert and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I belong here.’”