Singer, songwriter and political activist Sir Bob Geldof visited Dublin University Law Society (Law Soc) today to receive the prestigious Praeses Elit award. A man of all trades, Geldof is probably not best known for any single achievement, but is renowned as the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, the co-writer of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, co-founder of Band Aid and organiser of Live Aid and as an extremely influential political activist and advisor.
Indeed, he was last spotted shouting at then-leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, from a boat on the Thames in London ahead of the Brexit referendum.
Auditor of Law Soc, Hilary Hogan, began proceedings by addressing the small audience, gathered in D’Olier St, describing the Praeses Elit award as “founded to recognise individuals who have excelled in their chosen vocation”, and who have made an “outstanding contribution to public life”. Geldof then thanked Law Soc for the award, describing it as “proper”, compared to other misshapen pieces of “lucite” he normally receives.
Hogan began by asking Geldof about changes he has seen in Dublin and in Ireland as a whole since he emigrated from Ireland to the UK in his youth. He described the Ireland of the 1960s and 70s as “so far removed from the world”, and that from the ages of 11 he could recall “wanting to be ‘out’”. Now, he feels that Ireland has become more open and fresh, and that there is more “ahead of the pack thought” in Ireland now than ever before. He compared the Ireland of today to England, saying that, “England, that place that represented tolerance to me, seems to have closed down.”
This inevitably led on to a discussion on Brexit. Geldof, as a vocal “Remain” campaigner, was obviously disappointed with the result. Yet he states, however, that he absolutely accepts the democratic vote, but has a “democratic duty and responsibility to continue to reject the argument”. He is of the firm belief that if the EU were to fall apart, that within one or two generations, Europe will go to war, saying “if Britain is the loose thread on the EU cardigan, and pulls it and the whole thing unravels, we became economically competing states, and we will go to war”. He emphasised that he would never vote for his children or grandchildren to go to war.
Geldof also spoke about the role the media and social media plays in modern politics, describing this “thing in our pocket” as “without question, the single most important invention in the history of man”, comparing it to Gutenberg, but “times six billion, because we all have it”. He believes that the social media is reductionist, as with radio you listen to one voice, but “now you have some twat tweeting 140 characters of foreign policy”.
On the topic of social issues like marriage equality and repeal the eighth, Geldof took a controversial stance, saying that societal issues such as these were “no brainers”, but there were other more pressing global issues that we should be fighting and campaigning for too. He encouraged young people to “get off your phones, stop venting and cyber-wanking”, and to lobby and to march for what you believe in.
“It’s literally your future, why wouldn’t you be on the street?” he said.
When asked a question from the audience on the criticism Band Aid’s hit song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” received Geldof quickly replied: “I don’t give a fuck.”
The song, he said, was written in 1984 to make a point and to raise what they thought might be £100,000 and give it to Oxfam. It has since become a much bigger phenomenon than he ever would have thought, and there have been a further three releases since the original in 1984, with new acts contributing to each release. Since then, the song has raised “in excess of a couple of hundred million quid”.
Finishing up, Geldof said that he was “really glad we wrote that little tune”, but was not as glad every Christmas when he goes to Tesco and hears it playing at the meat counter.
