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Morrissey lovers hit Limerick last weekend for an academic conference on the mopey Mancunian’s lyrics, politics and celebrity.

‘IT’S LIKE a cross between going back to university and joining a religious cult,” reckons Steve Berry from Hertfordshire, as he surveys the scene. I’d have said a “rockabilly Star Trekconvention” myself, but we won’t split hairs. We’re in the atrium of the Foundation Building at the University of Limerick, where “The Songs That Saved Your Life – A Two Day Symposium on Morrissey” is about to get under way. Steve got up at 6am to fly in from Stansted. Others have travelled from the US, continental Europe and even Australia.