Garth Brooks has formally announced the cancellation of all his Croke Park concerts.

After a week of controversy with the concerts first cancelled, then under negotiation, the Texan country singer gave the final thumbs down for the three concerts allowed by the authorities, rather than five for which 400,000 tickets were sold in January and February.

“As hard as I try, I cannot see the light on this one,” he said. “ So it is with a broken heart, I announce the ticket refunds for the event will go as posted by Ticketmaster.”

Ticketmaster had delayed the start of refunds until Thursday on the understanding that negotiations were ongoing to try to find a resolution.

Dublin City council last week said there was no provision for an appeal of its planning ruling, allowing three concerts.

But in a statement issued last night through Aiken promotions the superstar said “I just received the news the Irish council cannot change their earlier ruling to not allow the licences for all five shows”. He quoted his mother who “always said things happen for a reason and for the right reason”. Mr Brooks said that to say he was “crushed” was an understatement. But he thanked “the Irish authorities for going the distance for all of us who wanted to share songs and dance together”.

He said he especially wanted to thank Mr Aiken and the 400,000 people “who believed enough to go through what they have been through to get to this point”.

The singer encouraged “any and all of them that can come see the show at some point around the world to bring your Irish flags and wave them proudly at the concerts. I will be looking for you”.

Licences His announcement of the formal cancellation of the concerts comes ahead of the appearance this morning of Dublin City Council's chief executive Owen Keegan and senior council officials before an Oireachtas committee to explain their decision to grant licences for only three of the five concerts planned for Croke Park later this month. The decision led to the singer cancelling the complete series, saying he could not let down the fans who would miss out.

Discussions continued yesterday in an attempt to rescue the concerts and Ticketmaster delayed refunding ticketholders until Thursday in the now vain hope the concerts might go ahead.

The American country singer had planned to perform at Croke Park from Friday, July 25th to Tuesday, July 29th; Aiken Promotions applied for licences for the five nights in April.

Brooks said he would perform five concerts or none at all and last Thursday he rejected a proposal to hold two of the concerts as matinees.