AS MANY ACROSS Ireland were celebrating the country’s Yes vote in the Marriage Equality referendum, U2 were playing to a packed out arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
But, true to form, Bono was never going to let the momentous occasion go without saying a few words about it.
During the band’s performance of Pride (In the Name of Love), Bono got his chance (about 2:30 into the video):
This is a moment to thank the people who bring us peace. It’s a moment for us to thank the people who brought peace to our country.We have peace in Ireland today.And in fact on this very day, we have true equality in Ireland! Because millions turned up to vote yesterday, to say “Love is the highest law in the land!”Love.The biggest turnout in the history of the State, to say “love is the highest law in the land. Because if God loves us, whoever we love, wherever we come from, then why can’t the State?”
The band has always associated the song with the struggle for equal rights (it was written about Martin Luther King Jr). When Bono presented Nelson Mandela to the Croke Park crowd at the Special Olympics opening ceremony in 2003, it was Pride that had the place in raptures at the time.
In Saturday’s performance, Bono also made a rather predictable alteration to the lyrics of the song, singing: “Free at last / They took your life / They could not take your gay pride.”
On the day of the referendum itself the band referenced the song in an Instagram post urging people to vote Yes.
It was quite the end of it though. At the end of the performance, as the crowd cheered, Bono had to squeeze in one more kicker.
“Putting the ‘gay’ into Gaelic,” he exclaimed.
Oh Bono, never change.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say