The controversial rap artist was barred from entering the UK following an incident at Heathrow Airport last April involving his entourage.

While more than 65,000 tickets have been sold for his joint shows with fellow rapper P Diddy as part of the Hip Hop Heavyweights tour, the star has been slapped with a lifetime ban from entering the UK.

However, speaking from Holland, where he is waiting to see if the ban will be overturned, Snoop Dogg said the two Dublin dates at the Point Depot on March 31 and April 1 will go ahead as planned.

Snoop said: "I am mystified at the Home Office decision.

"It goes back to an incident at Heathrow Airport last year when my security team got a bit rambunctious.

"But we presented ourselves to the police and they said we had no charges to answer from the incident," he said.

"I am still hoping that the Home Office will reconsider as we have been in Europe for the past week and have played to over 100,000 people without incident."

Snoop said that if he was still barred, he would head straight to Dublin for the climax of the tour.

He said both he and P Diddy had been rehearsing the Irish-American rap anthem Jump Around by House of Pain especially for Dublin to round off " the hottest show ever".

Noel McHale of MCD Promotions added: "Snoop loves Ireland and in the past has helped us with our charity fundraising Meteor Awards and at his appearance in Ireland at Oxegen he drew the biggest crowd ever to the main stage at that festival."

Mr McHale said that given the size of his entourage and production, it was unlikely the star would return to Europe if the UK was off-limits to him.

"This will probably be the last time to see him in Europe," he said.