{"id":635983,"date":"2026-09-25T21:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635983\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:10:09","slug":"u2-play-special-gigs-at-mount-temple-comprehensive-and-grafton-street-to-mark-50th-anniversary-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635983\/","title":{"rendered":"U2 play special gigs at Mount Temple Comprehensive and Grafton Street to mark 50th anniversary \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m at Mount Temple Comprehensive on the Malahide Road on Dublin\u2019s northside watching one of their school bands going through their set on a podium in the yard. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s two in the day on a Friday. This quartet are called, depending when you ask, Feedback or The Hype or U2. Fifty years on from drummer Larry Mullen sticking a note up on a noticeboard seeking bandmates (Bono gives him kudos later in the gig) they\u2019re still going. They played their last gig in this exact location in 1978. <\/p>\n

It has been an open secret in the school all week. A friend of a friend\u2019s child went out to the toilet during the week and bumped into Bono<\/a> in the halls. Another appalled parent tells me: \u201cI had to explain the importance of this to my kid. She said \u2018What\u2019s the fuss about?\u2019 What\u2019s the fuss about???\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the equivalent, to be fair, of the teenage U2 being subjected to a performance by Count John McCormack or Archbishop McQuaid or any other stalwarts from 50 years prior. But there are several hundred of them here anyway, and they seem very into it, holding homemade banners and generally yammering away with joy (though one banner reads: \u201cIt\u2019s a Beautiful Day, No School\u201d). <\/p>\n

\u201cWe escaped from the lab,\u201d says Bono when he takes to the stage, pointing to the nearby science lab. \u201cHow\u2019s the experiment going for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon the kids are screaming with appreciation. The elderly kids of the press and staff room are certainly enjoying it. Some are dancing. Several elbow feckless kids out of the way to get to the front. Fintan O\u2019Toole<\/a> is here, probably trying to figure out what it all means. <\/p>\n

The band are all in black and they are, in fairness, on fire: Bono stalking the stage, Adam Clayton<\/a> wielding his bass like a country gentleman wielding a barrel machine gun, the Edge<\/a> wrenching arpeggiated shimmers from his various guitars, Larry Mullen<\/a> chilled behind the drums like an Easter Island head and just as impervious to age. <\/p>\n

After I Will Follow, they play Vertigo, which he counts in in Spanish (\u201cDon\u2019t come to me for Spanish lessons\u201d), then Beautiful Day (with some quotations from Elbow\u2019s similarly themed One Day Like This), then another almost 50-year-old classic, Out of Control, and then their slinky new garage rock banger Silencio. <\/p>\n

Bono also introduces his bandmates according to their class designations (Larry 2I, Adam 5D and Edge 3U), notes that the appreciative kids have \u201cnowhere else to go\u201d, highlights the important work of their educational NGO Music Generation and he pays tribute to the teachers in the school who influenced them.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0U2\u2019s new album Carnaval De Luz features Dolly Parton and Bono duetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

They end it all with One, accompanied by a child string section and, finally, one more tune (there was a chant), a fingerpicked version of With or Without You. <\/p>\n

Are U2 cool or uncool to these children of a new Ireland? That\u2019s like asking a teenager if Brian Boru or a gothic arch or sedimentary rocks are cool or uncool. It\u2019s sort of beside the point. <\/p>\n

U2 play I Will Follow at a surprise concert at Mount Temple Comprehensive in Dublin where they formed 50 years ago. <\/p>\n

U2 are simply a fact of life now. And they are, in fairness, brilliant. To quote a Simpsons review of a school performance: \u201cA good time was had by all\u201d. It\u2019s celebratory. It\u2019s life affirming. It\u2019s a bookend. <\/p>\n

U2 marked their 50th anniversary with a string of surprise concerts across Dublin including one on Grafton Street <\/p>\n

Later that evening they bring Grafton Street to a halt performing from the balcony of Bewley\u2019s, Bono louchely hanging from the railings (\u201cbe careful man, you\u2019re in your sixties!\u201d I feel like shouting) as thousands of delighted people help him sing the lyrics of I Will Follow, Out of Control, One, I Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For (with a breakout rendition of Molly Malone), With or Without You, Silencio, All I Want is You, Falling Slowly (sung by the Edge, in tribute to the late Glen Hansard), Beautiful Day, Vertigo and 40 (the Edge and Adam swap instruments). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe buskers have really upped their game,\u201d says Bono. The audience sing Happy Birthday.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Edge and Bono on the balcony of Bewley’s, Grafton Street, on Friday evening. Picture: Enda O’Dowd <\/p>\n

But now outside the grounds of Mount Temple, I picture a slate grey Dublin, filled with unemployment and dereliction and Catholic repression. There\u2019s hope in here, though, from the kids but also the chord sequences. These young men should possibly be concentrating on their studies but something tells me they have a future. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on U2 at 50: drummer finds musiciansOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m at Mount Temple Comprehensive on the Malahide Road on Dublin\u2019s northside watching one of their school bands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20530,26016,615,93,33743,61,60,26015,37866,660],"class_list":["post-635983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adam-clayton","tag-bono","tag-dublin","tag-entertainment","tag-fintan-otoole","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-larry-mullen","tag-the-edge","tag-u2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635983","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=635983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}