{"id":209202,"date":"2025-12-24T21:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/209202\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:11:07","slug":"bono-joins-annual-christmas-eve-busking-session-in-dublin-city-centre-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/209202\/","title":{"rendered":"Bono joins annual Christmas Eve busking session in Dublin city centre \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bono<\/a>, Imelda May<\/a> and Oscar winner Glen Hansard<\/a> have taken part in a Christmas<\/a> Eve charity busking session in Dublin<\/a> city centre.<\/p>\n

Hansard opened the annual event on Wednesday night, telling the large crowd that more than 30 artists were waiting to perform.<\/p>\n

Among them were the band The Riptide Movement and singer-songwriter Shobsy.<\/p>\n

U2<\/a> frontman Bono was one of the last to take to the stage, performing a rendition of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) with singer May.<\/p>\n

The event came to an end with a rousing performance of the Pogues<\/a> classic Fairytale of New York, during which May wished the late Shane MacGowan<\/a> a \u201chappy birthday for tomorrow\u201d.<\/p>\n

The traditional gig marks its 15th anniversary this year and raises funds for the Dublin Simon Community<\/a>, a charity which provides services to people in seven counties who are homeless<\/a> or at risk of homelessness.<\/p>\n

The event started in 2010 as an impromptu sing-song on Grafton Street.<\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny O’Donoghue of The Script takes part in the annual Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street in Dublin on Wednesday, in aid the Dublin Simon Community. Photograph: Conor \u00d3 Mear\u00e1in\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

It has now become a more official and organised event outside the Gaiety Theatre nearby.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people sang along to a mix of Christmas tunes and Irish hits, with viewers tuning into the livestream from Berlin, London and New York.<\/p>\n

In the crowd were Dubliners returning from abroad.<\/p>\n

Jason Hanaway, who lives between New York and Poland, said the event was \u201cbrilliant\u201d, adding \u201conly in Dublin\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maria Campani, from Italy, has made the city her home and says she comes every year, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s a great event that brings everyone together.\u201d \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bono, Imelda May and Oscar winner Glen Hansard have taken part in a Christmas Eve charity busking session…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26016,109250,615,4507,109249,109247,94043,42,3663,109248,43,6283,86953,24832,40,38,41,39,660],"class_list":["post-209202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bono","tag-danny-o-donoghue","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-2","tag-dublin-simon-community","tag-glen-hansard","tag-grafton-street","tag-headlines","tag-homeless-crisis","tag-imelda-may","tag-news","tag-shane-macgowan","tag-the-pogues","tag-the-script","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}