Nirvana played a number of shows in Ireland, including a legendary series of dates supporting Sonic Youth in 1991 that appear to have been attended by roughly one million people - or so it seems, as everyone of a certain age still insists that they were definitely there. And down the front.

By the following year, Nevermind had made them the hottest and the coolest band on the planet, and they returned for headlining dates in Dublin and Belfast, on 21 and 22 June 1992, supported on both dates by The Breeders and Teenage Fanclub. Now that's what we call a line-up.

A MTV News report from the time offered an fascinating snapshot of the band (Kurt is notable by his absence), their fans and Belfast at the tail end of the Troubles - watch it below:

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Scout around YouTube, and you'll find an audio recording of the show at Belfast's King's Hall. The sound is ropey as hell - in the true spirit of the bootleg live cassettes that everyone traded back then - but the band, at the peak of their powers, still sound pretty freaking awesome, and punk rock as hell: 

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The previous day, they had played a well-received show at Dublin's Point Depot, now the 02 Arena - watch it in full, captured in shaky DIY fashion (ah, the days before camera phones) below. Your humble writer was at that one in person, and a quarter-century remembers pretty much every thrilling second:

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Kurt Cobain died three days before they were due to play the RDS in Dublin in April 1994. He's still missed.

Picture via rareirishstuff.com