salomeU2000
The Fly
Bio : Ali Hewson
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By Devlin Smith
�It is hard sometimes. I hate being called �Bono�s Wife,� and being identified just as that. I know that people who know me well enough don�t think of me like that. But there are always going to be others who don�t see me as having a separate identity, who just see us as the one person. At the end of the day, I don�t really care what people think, just so long as I feel strong enough about myself.� - MORE magazine, 1994
She�s a wife, mother, social crusader, environmental activist, friend of supermodels and fashion plate. She�s the stunning brunette with the million-watt smile charming world leaders, soothing children and outshining the rich and famous, always impeccably dressed and wearing amazing shoes. She�s Alison Hewson, and she�s so much more than simply Bono�s wife.
(Photo: REUTERS/Jim Ruymen)
Alison, known by pretty much everyone as Ali, was born to Terry and Joy Stewart in Dublin on March 23, 1961. She grew up on the city�s north side and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where on her first day of school, Ali caught the attention of Paul Hewson, soon to become Bono. The pair began dating when Ali was 15 and Bono was 16. �It was November, actually 25 years ago, I joined U2 and I started going out with Ali, so it was a good month,� Bono recalled on �Larry King Live� in 2002. Ali worked in motor insurance, and with her father in his electrical business after leaving Mount Temple. On Aug. 21, 1982, Bono and Ali were married.
While her husband toured the world and made albums with U2, Ali went back to school. Though she�d always wanted to be a nurse, Ali decided to pursue other studies at University College Dublin. �I wanted that personal contact with people, the one-to-one, the medical expertise, I still do,� Ali told the Irish Times magazine in 2000. �But Bono�s life had taken off in one direction and I realized that if I went into nursing I was going to have to live in for four very intensive years. It would have been too much on the relationship.�
Instead, Ali earned a social science degree with an emphasis on political science and sociology. Two weeks before finals Ali gave birth to daughter Jordan, born on May 10, 1989, her father�s 29th birthday. Infant Jordan and father Bono were there to watch Ali receive her degree.
Ali planned on earning a Master�s degree in moral and political ethics, but the birth of daughter Memphis Eve on July 7, 1991 put further schooling on hold. Instead of studying politics, Ali�s next move was to become an activist.
After the Live Aid concerts in 1985, Ali and Bono traveled to Ethiopia to see the situation there firsthand. �Ali and myself, we went down there to do anything,� Bono told BP Fallon. The couple worked at an orphanage for a month, writing songs and plays to teach the children lessons about things like health and hygiene. In 1986, Ali and Bono traveled through Nicaragua and El Salvador as the countries dealt war and political upheaval.
In the �90s Ali began her work related to the Sellafield nuclear plant, a British plant that sends waste water into the Irish Sea, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. To protest the building of THORP, a Sellafield site where nuclear waste from all over the world would be collected, Ali organized a publicity stunt where U2, with Greenpeace, donned radiation suits as they delivered drums of contaminated mud from the Irish Sea.
In 1993, Ali went to Belarus to participate in the creation of �Black Wind, White Land,� an award-winning documentary that detailed life in Belarus in the years following the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Ali�s experiences in Belarus furthered her passion for the Sellafield cause. �Anyone who lives 600 kilometers around a nuclear installation should be concerned. If it happened at Chernobyl, it could happen anywhere,� Ali told Hot Press. �And the point is that the fallout from the Chernobyl explosion was carried on the wind, with 70 percent landing on Belarus. That�s exactly what could happen in relation to Ireland if there was an explosion in Sellafield.�
Since 1994 Ali has been patron of the Chernobyl Children�s Project, an Irish charity that works with children affected by the disaster by raising money for needed operations and sometimes even finding adoptive parents. One child, the now 10-year-old Anna Gabriel who was born in Belarus with deformities due to radiation exposure suffered by her mother, was adopted by a couple in County Cork and is Ali�s goddaughter.
To mark the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 2002, Ali fronted a campaign to get households across Ireland to send postcards to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles and Norman Askew, chairman of British Nuclear Fuels, to shut Sellafield. �Britain is experimenting with our lives and we�re not even allowed in the debate,� Ali told The Guardian. The campaign was an overwhelming success with 1.2 million of the 1.3 million households in Ireland sending cards to the three officials. Ali hand-delivered hers to Blair�s home.
Ali�s been the somewhat reluctant recipient of many honors for her work. In 2002, she and Adi Roche, founder of the Chernobyl Children�s project, were conferred with honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from University of Ireland, Galway. The Irish Labour Party approached Ali to run for president of Ireland in 2004, but she declined. �For one thing I�m not sure I�m qualified, and for another I�ve got four small kids to bring up first,� Ali told the BBC. �On top of that, my husband says we couldn�t possibly move into the president�s official mansion and set up home in a smaller house.�
A petition to the Dublin City Council is available at www.petitiononline.com/AliQuay2/petition.html.
In the midst of all her work for Chernobyl Children�s Project and Shut Sellafield, Ali gave birth to sons Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q on Aug. 11, 1999, and John Abraham on May 20, 2001. Soon after John�s birth, Ali jokingly assured the Irish press that she and Bono would not be having more children.
With all that she�s done and will do, it�s hard to categorize Ali Hewson. She�s not overly concerned with labels, though, she just wants to make a difference. �I don�t want to end my life feeling I�ve only looked after myself, that everything I did was to protect myself,� she told the Irish Times magazine. �I want when I die to believe that I�ve achieved what I was supposed to achieve, that is to help other people in whatever way I could.�
<!-- HTTP://bonovox.interference.com/bios/alithumb.jpg -->
By Devlin Smith
�It is hard sometimes. I hate being called �Bono�s Wife,� and being identified just as that. I know that people who know me well enough don�t think of me like that. But there are always going to be others who don�t see me as having a separate identity, who just see us as the one person. At the end of the day, I don�t really care what people think, just so long as I feel strong enough about myself.� - MORE magazine, 1994
She�s a wife, mother, social crusader, environmental activist, friend of supermodels and fashion plate. She�s the stunning brunette with the million-watt smile charming world leaders, soothing children and outshining the rich and famous, always impeccably dressed and wearing amazing shoes. She�s Alison Hewson, and she�s so much more than simply Bono�s wife.
(Photo: REUTERS/Jim Ruymen)
Alison, known by pretty much everyone as Ali, was born to Terry and Joy Stewart in Dublin on March 23, 1961. She grew up on the city�s north side and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where on her first day of school, Ali caught the attention of Paul Hewson, soon to become Bono. The pair began dating when Ali was 15 and Bono was 16. �It was November, actually 25 years ago, I joined U2 and I started going out with Ali, so it was a good month,� Bono recalled on �Larry King Live� in 2002. Ali worked in motor insurance, and with her father in his electrical business after leaving Mount Temple. On Aug. 21, 1982, Bono and Ali were married.
While her husband toured the world and made albums with U2, Ali went back to school. Though she�d always wanted to be a nurse, Ali decided to pursue other studies at University College Dublin. �I wanted that personal contact with people, the one-to-one, the medical expertise, I still do,� Ali told the Irish Times magazine in 2000. �But Bono�s life had taken off in one direction and I realized that if I went into nursing I was going to have to live in for four very intensive years. It would have been too much on the relationship.�
Instead, Ali earned a social science degree with an emphasis on political science and sociology. Two weeks before finals Ali gave birth to daughter Jordan, born on May 10, 1989, her father�s 29th birthday. Infant Jordan and father Bono were there to watch Ali receive her degree.
Ali planned on earning a Master�s degree in moral and political ethics, but the birth of daughter Memphis Eve on July 7, 1991 put further schooling on hold. Instead of studying politics, Ali�s next move was to become an activist.
After the Live Aid concerts in 1985, Ali and Bono traveled to Ethiopia to see the situation there firsthand. �Ali and myself, we went down there to do anything,� Bono told BP Fallon. The couple worked at an orphanage for a month, writing songs and plays to teach the children lessons about things like health and hygiene. In 1986, Ali and Bono traveled through Nicaragua and El Salvador as the countries dealt war and political upheaval.
In the �90s Ali began her work related to the Sellafield nuclear plant, a British plant that sends waste water into the Irish Sea, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. To protest the building of THORP, a Sellafield site where nuclear waste from all over the world would be collected, Ali organized a publicity stunt where U2, with Greenpeace, donned radiation suits as they delivered drums of contaminated mud from the Irish Sea.
In 1993, Ali went to Belarus to participate in the creation of �Black Wind, White Land,� an award-winning documentary that detailed life in Belarus in the years following the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Ali�s experiences in Belarus furthered her passion for the Sellafield cause. �Anyone who lives 600 kilometers around a nuclear installation should be concerned. If it happened at Chernobyl, it could happen anywhere,� Ali told Hot Press. �And the point is that the fallout from the Chernobyl explosion was carried on the wind, with 70 percent landing on Belarus. That�s exactly what could happen in relation to Ireland if there was an explosion in Sellafield.�
Since 1994 Ali has been patron of the Chernobyl Children�s Project, an Irish charity that works with children affected by the disaster by raising money for needed operations and sometimes even finding adoptive parents. One child, the now 10-year-old Anna Gabriel who was born in Belarus with deformities due to radiation exposure suffered by her mother, was adopted by a couple in County Cork and is Ali�s goddaughter.
To mark the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 2002, Ali fronted a campaign to get households across Ireland to send postcards to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles and Norman Askew, chairman of British Nuclear Fuels, to shut Sellafield. �Britain is experimenting with our lives and we�re not even allowed in the debate,� Ali told The Guardian. The campaign was an overwhelming success with 1.2 million of the 1.3 million households in Ireland sending cards to the three officials. Ali hand-delivered hers to Blair�s home.
Ali�s been the somewhat reluctant recipient of many honors for her work. In 2002, she and Adi Roche, founder of the Chernobyl Children�s project, were conferred with honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from University of Ireland, Galway. The Irish Labour Party approached Ali to run for president of Ireland in 2004, but she declined. �For one thing I�m not sure I�m qualified, and for another I�ve got four small kids to bring up first,� Ali told the BBC. �On top of that, my husband says we couldn�t possibly move into the president�s official mansion and set up home in a smaller house.�
A petition to the Dublin City Council is available at www.petitiononline.com/AliQuay2/petition.html.
In the midst of all her work for Chernobyl Children�s Project and Shut Sellafield, Ali gave birth to sons Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q on Aug. 11, 1999, and John Abraham on May 20, 2001. Soon after John�s birth, Ali jokingly assured the Irish press that she and Bono would not be having more children.
With all that she�s done and will do, it�s hard to categorize Ali Hewson. She�s not overly concerned with labels, though, she just wants to make a difference. �I don�t want to end my life feeling I�ve only looked after myself, that everything I did was to protect myself,� she told the Irish Times magazine. �I want when I die to believe that I�ve achieved what I was supposed to achieve, that is to help other people in whatever way I could.�
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I really like that article very much!! 
thankyou!!
I love that she hand delivered them to Blair's home! ha ha ha
U2 wouldn't have been as half as popular with their wives hanging around.
i like her
