Stars including U2’s Bono, double Open golf winner Padraig Harrington and Northern Ireland comic Patrick Kielty were on the guest list for the celeb-packed wedding of singer Andrea Corr to Brett Desmond, the son of Irish multi-millionaire Dermot Desmond, in Co Clare yesterday.

The Co Clare town of Miltown Malbay, it's safe to assume, hasn't had many days like this.

Five minutes after the wedding of the famous singer and the billionaire's son was due to begin — and with the groom waiting patiently inside — a high-powered Maserati sports car was driven up the main street, through the excited crowd of onlookers and into the grounds of St Joseph's Church.

“False alarm,” one local shrugged. It was only Bono.

And that was just the way of it in the windswept Clare village yesterday.

Millionaires, billionaires, musicians, artists, sport stars, TV personalities, the bold and the beautiful had trooped off buses all afternoon before making their way through the increasingly blasé locals and into the interior of the austere church.

As much out of politeness as anything else, you felt, they gave Bono and his wife Ali a hearty cheer.

Earlier the rubber-necking had led to a minor car crash at the gates of the church but, by this stage, the crowd was in a new-found comfort zone and they waited only to catch a glimpse of the bride-to-be in her frock, much like at any other wedding.

How quickly something strange becomes normal.

Andrea Corr duly arrived at five to three — 25 minutes late — and looked stunning, although she initially struggled to exit the back of the Mercedes in what we were reliably informed was “an ivory off-the-shoulder Vera Wang number”. Reliably informed, that is, by a clued-in local woman.

Ms Corr smiled in the sunshine and waved to the crowd a couple of times before entering the church with her bridesmaids.

Among the 400 or so already inside were high-profile businessmen Dermot Desmond, Denis Desmond and Denis O'Brien. The horsey set was represented by JP McManus, John Magnier and Michael Tabor.

Ms Corr's bridesmaids included her sisters Sharon and Caroline her new sister-in-law Zoe, and friend Niamh McElwanie. Brett Desmond's best man was his brother Ross, while Jim Corr was an usher.

While Ms Corr (35) and Mr Desmond (31) posed for photographs the 500-or-so locals clambered on top of walls and cars and out of top windows of nearby houses to catch another glimpse.

Much as she did after the rehearsal on Thursday night, Ms Corr rolled down the car window and repeatedly thanked the locals for their congratulations as she moved through the Miltown Malbay crowds, this time a married woman.