{"id":637357,"date":"2026-09-27T06:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T06:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637357\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T06:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T06:46:15","slug":"fly-on-the-wall-heres-what-it-was-like-inside-u2s-secret-mount-temple-schoolyard-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637357\/","title":{"rendered":"Fly on the wall: Here’s what it was like inside U2’s ‘secret’ Mount Temple schoolyard gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 25 Sep\n <\/p>\n

IT WAS, AT the same time, the best- and worst-kept secret in Irish show business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A small crowd started gathering outside Mount Temple shortly after 9am in the hope of catching a glimpse of one of U2\u2032s members, as word filtered out that something special might be in the offing to mark their 50th anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gathered fans weren\u2019t disappointed. Bono and The Edge were photographed stopping to chat and take selfies on their way into their former school to set up, mid-morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the students, delighted to have the day off lessons, were corralled inside classrooms as the final checks were made to the on-stage set-up and to the massive stacks of speakers dotted around the grounds.<\/p>\n

Shortly after 1pm, two bus loads of journalists were shepherded into the PE hall.<\/p>\n

Friends and family \u2013 including U2\u2032s former longtime manager Paul McGuinness, artist and ex-Virgin Prune Guggi and RT\u00c9 veteran Dave Fanning \u2013 stood and chatted, before being shown up to a riser at the back of the yard for a bird\u2019s-eye view of proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor songs were played out at mid-volume throughout lunchtime before, bang on time at 2pm, the band took to the stage to the sound of Alice Cooper\u2019s School\u2019s Out<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U2, famously, were formed in the halls of Mount Temple after Larry Mullen, in a move still regarded with mild offence by drummers worldwide, placed a message on the noticeboard back in 1976 titled \u2018drummer seeks musicians\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The teenage group flourished in the school\u2019s environs, and have spoken warmly of the teachers and culture at the co-ed school in interviews across the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were encouraged to be individuals,\u201d bassist Adam Clayton said earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were allowed to rehearse on the school premises on Wednesdays and Saturdays.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

I Will Follow\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arriving into the crowd from inside the school building, the four members lined up in a somewhat cramped space on a concrete ledge before belting into their set.<\/p>\n

The set-up, in the corner of the yard, would have made sense to hardcore fans \u2013 photos taken during a performance by the band back in 1977 show them lined up in the exact same formation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"u2\"
\n U2 performing at Mount Temple in 1977. U2<\/p>\n

U2\n<\/p>\n

Greeting the crowd, they launched straight into a song that\u2019s almost as old as the group itself \u2013 1980\u2032s I Will Follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were some tense (and, admittedly, bemused) looks exchanged among reporters as it became apparent there were serious problems with Bono\u2019s mic early in the performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gremlins were somehow exterminated midway through the song, however, to cheers from the young crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for showing up,\u201d Bono told the students during a break between songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose you\u2019d nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four piece switched back and forth between some of their earliest songs and biggest hits throughout their short, tight, loud set. 2004\u2032s Vertigo, which shares more than a few musical genes with I Will Follow, came next, followed by 2000\u2032s Beautiful Day, 1979\u2032s Out of Control and 1991\u2032s One.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also gave the first live performance of their new single Silencio.<\/p>\n

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

Bono kept the monologues to a minimum, but again took the time to speak glowingly of the group\u2019s time at the school \u2013 noting, in particular, how Mount Temple stood out in 1970s Ireland in that there was no \u201cA, B, C, D and E\u201d classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As he introduced his bandmates, Larry got a nod as\u00a0\u201cthe man who pinned the note\u201d and Adam (who was, apparently, something of a freewheeling student) was dubbed \u201cthe streaker of the green corridor\u201d.<\/p>\n

Closing out their main set with One, Bono introduced a group of young harpists, violinists and viola players who had been taught via the Music Generation programme, which U2 co-funds alongside the Irish state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In what was perhaps the moment of the afternoon, the young musicians struck up to provide the string accompaniment to the Achtung Baby track.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hundreds of Mount Temple students waved their hands in the air to the strains of the song while, at the back of the risers, reporters who had managed to snag chairs from inside the Portakabins balanced precariously to try and get a better view.<\/p>\n

The group posed for photos, arms wrapped around each other and fists pumping the air, before departing the stage.\u00a0 Almost as soon as they\u2019d left, however, they returned to close the show with another of their biggest hits \u2013 a stripped-back version of With or Without You from 1987\u2032s The Joshua Tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ue2FTVyQ\"
\n Rich Fury<\/p>\n

Rich Fury\n<\/p>\n

Time travel<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much footage of U2\u2032s earliest days as a group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was decades before smartphones, of course. And, with the possible exception of Bono, nobody knew that this nascent outfit were going to go on to become the world-dominating U2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their first appearance on national television was in 1978 on RT\u00c9\u2019s Saturday morning Youngline programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can find the clip on YouTube<\/a>. They\u2019re clearly still very much kids. The musicianship is a work in progress but their stage presence, Bono\u2019s in particular, is striking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As they throw shapes, attempting to ape their teenage musical heroes like David Bowie and Phil Lynott, there\u2019s a nice moment where Larry attempts to glower moodily down the camera, before breaking into a giant grin and thoroughly ruining any appearance of being cool.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 48 years to a sunny Friday afternoon in Dublin, and they\u2019ve certainly nailed the musicianship.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re still just as cool as they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST UPDATE | 25 Sep IT WAS, AT the same time, the best- and worst-kept secret in Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[258506,37865,26016,7904,93,61,60,22396,270746,2965],"class_list":["post-637357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-50-years","tag-adam","tag-bono","tag-edge","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-larry","tag-mount-temple","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637357","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=637357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}