Arise SIR BONO

[BonoFox1]

I just hurried in to post this but I see I'm a little too slow

Saturday, December 23, 2006
DUBLIN, Ireland - Irish rocker and humanitarian Bono will become a knight of the British empire - but the U2 frontman won't be called "Sir."

Britain confirmed Saturday Bono will receive his honorary knighthood from the British ambassador to Ireland, David Reddaway, in a Dublin ceremony shortly after New Year's Day.

The Dubliner, whose real name is Paul Hewson, won't be entitled to use the title "Sir" because he is not a national of Britain or the Commonwealth of former British colonies.

A spokesman said the 46-year-old singer was flattered by the honor and hoped it will help him open diplomatic doors in his campaign for more Western aid to Africa.

In a letter to Bono released Saturday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the singer's lobbying had forced wealthy nations to focus on increasing aid to Africa.

"I know from talking to you how much these causes matter to you," Blair wrote. "I know as well how knowledgeable you are about the problems we face and how determined you are to do all you can to help overcome them. You have tirelessly used your voice to speak up for Africa."

Blair said he hoped to keep working with Bono "to work together to maintain momentum on Africa, and ensure leaders around the world meet the promises they have made."

The British Embassy in Dublin said the Irish government approved granting Bono the title. The issue is diplomatically sensitive, because Irish officials are legally barred from receiving British royal honors and other Irish nationals have refused nominations on political grounds. Ireland withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1949.

Previous non-British nationals who received knighthoods include Bono's fellow Dubliner and rocker-turned-humanitarian Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, the Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, former New York Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, and Steven Spielberg.
(Courtesy of People PC)

He so totally deserves this

That is WAY COOL!!! :appluad: and very well deserved

 

[mandy1973]

AWESOME - and totally deserved
...Now for that Nobel Prize perhaps....

 

[susanp6]

I was just thinking that Mandy how long now 'til Nobel?

 

[Jamila]

This honorary award of knighthood can only but help Bono's campaign to make extreme poverty history - and that is all that really matters.


I remember in 2002 when U2 was asked to participate in the ceremonies to celebrate the Queen's 50th anniversary - and they politely turned down the offer.


So, while I do think that there are probably some residual mixed feelings about this award with Bono, I'm sure that he's thrilled to receive it to use it (his honorary knighthood) to further his humanitarian activities.


KUDOS, BONO!

 

[blueeyedgirl]

If Bob Geldof has had his honorary knighthood since 1986, I dont' actually see how this will aid Bono's work in any way, since obv not much has changed in 20 years.

Accepting awards is not very "rock'n'roll".

 

[Jamila]

One can always hope, my friend.


I subscribe to the idea that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

 

[GracelandHarley]

One can always hope, my friend.


I subscribe to the idea that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

Wow, that's really profound, Jamila. Something to keep in mind at this time of year.

 

[jobob]

Accepting awards is not very "rock'n'roll".

Now why can I imagine "Sir" Bono himself saying that?

 

[cobl04]

Originally posted by thankyou
As much as he deserves the recognition, and he sure does, I prefer Bono just to stay plain Bono. The young kid full of dreams who's become what he is today. An amazing man. No need for the word Sir in front of it.

Mmmhmm.

 

[SimplyConfused]

Aye but technically, he's not a Sir, is he? He's Paul Hewson, K.B.E. Or will be. OK, so the press will dub him Sir Bono, like they've been calling Geldof 'Sir Bob' for the last two decades, but still. To us he can still be Bono. And he will be.

 

[SimplyConfused]

I subscribe to the idea that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

I've been trying to say that for a long time, and you've just put it in the best words I've ever heard. Thank you, and so damn true.

 

[susanp6]

Great words Jamila

That truly is a great way of putting that!

 

[U2girl]

I guess that ppl are going to question this if he accepts it and also question it if he doesn't. Hmmm..seems like he can't win. That said, I don't know why it has to be political anyway. The guy deserves recognition and that's that...

There'd be press titles in UK if he'd say no to the queen too, definitely.

I don't think this means Bono supports the monarchy or the British troops in Ireland nor that he is behind everything Blair does, it simply means the Queen wishes to salute him for his activism. And he accepts it.

If anything this reinforces his "all sides" approach in his work. From the guy waving the white flag and having to spell out to people SBS was not a "rebel song" to the guy working political left and right for the greater good.

 

[U2Girl1978]

One can always hope, my friend.


I subscribe to the idea that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

 

[vaz02]

it simply means the Queen wishes to salute him for his activism. And he accepts it.

A board decide who gets these knighthoods and honours. The queen just waves the magic sword.

I doubt the queen even knows Bono.

 

[Liesje]

I doubt the queen even knows Bono.

I doubt anyone who's given him an award or honor really *knows* him.

 

[flybabe]

this Man has got into almost everything

 

[susanp6]

 

[U2Kitten]

I always thought Bono said it was wrong for an Irishman to be knighted by the British monarchy considering the history of the two countries, and he'd never do it?!

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

Ah... you gotta love the irish...


read on fellow plebans..


The Sunday Times December 31, 2006

Comment: Brenda Power: Forget the chip, let Bono take it on shoulder

So what precisely is the difference between Bono and God? The old gag
is getting more difficult to answer with each passing day, especially
now that the U2 frontman appears to have added humility to the
mysteries of ubiquity, bilocation, mastery of tongues and omnipotence
that already feature in his repertoire of superhuman powers.

On St Stephen’s Day, he (Bono, not God) turned up at the races, linking
arms with his wife and looking every inch the ordinary punter hoping to
score a few bob for the sales, on a rare day out. If it wasn’t for the
pink sunglasses on one of the greyest days of the year, he’d have
blended right in.

Say what you like about Bono’s musical talents, but the “ordinary Joe
at the races” persona hit the right note, as the tidings of his
impending knighthood had just been leaked to the weekend’s newspapers.
The news that Bono is to join Sir Bob as a Knight of the Most Excellent
Order of the Great British Empire ruffled some less salubrious plumage
across the country last week.

When Bob Geldof got his honorary knighthood after Live Aid, it seemed a
quaintly eccentric gesture by the British Establishment. It was so
wilfully inappropriate it was almost anarchic. The sense that someone
was having a laugh, Sir Bob included, went a long way towards defusing
much of the national begrudgery that attended the honour.

But Bono is different. With Bono, as with Sir Anthony O’Reilly, there’s
that sneaking suspicion that he might actually enjoy it, even revel in
it. Indeed, he might even believe that he deserves it and we can’t be
having that. But the inevitable whingeing from those who believe Bono’s
head is plenty big enough without adding an honorary title to the mix
distracts from the issue the honour is designed to highlight.

Bono has been honoured in pretty much every way possible as an
entertainer and a humanitarian. As well as being weighed down with
Grammys, he’s also received the Légion d’honneur from the French state,
a person of the year award from Time magazine and, best of all, he’s an
Honorary Freeman of the City of Dublin, leaving him at liberty to graze
his sheep in St Stephen’s Green.

He rubs shoulders with the great and the good wherever he goes. The
Pope, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and George Bush are all
delighted to have their pictures taken with Bono for their family
albums. So another honour from another state could be expected to pass
almost unnoticed. But this isn’t just another gong for the mantelpiece.
This one is different.

There is something about the words “great”, “British” and “empire” in
the same sentence that still raises hackles on this side of the Irish
Sea. They’re three words that most Irish folk find difficult to string
together without a snarl. So the thought that one of our own is
planning to bend the knee to the British monarch — even if it is in a
proxy ceremony in the embassy in Dublin — to be bestowed with a
knighthood for services to the empire is pretty difficult to stomach.
Even if it is for services to music and his humanitarian efforts.

Bono should, one strand of the argument runs, tell the Great British
Empire to stick the KBE where the sun doesn’t shine. And given the
number of former colonies where the sun has long since set, there will
be no shortage of possibilities. The more moderate view is that Bono
should have expressed his gratitude for the thought but turned down the
honorary knighthood all the same.

The vehemence of the reaction is extraordinary. A few years ago the
Vatican bestowed an honour on Bono and there was scarcely a peep of
protest from anyone. But at the time he was collecting his award, this
country was awash with tales of clerical scandals and cover-ups. The
relationship with the church was so damaged that some more extreme
voices suggested the Papal Nuncio be summoned to the Phoenix Park and
summarily expelled from the country.

As an eloquent spokesman for the world’s most vulnerable people, Bono
could have taken a stand and turned down that summons from the Vatican
in protest at the rape, torture and incarceration of the poorest and
weakest children of his own country. But I can’t recall anyone making
that suggestion.

Scandals or no scandals, I bet there would have been uproar if Bono had
pleaded a previous engagement on the day of the Vatican ceremony. Just
a few years earlier President Mary Robinson had neglected to wear a
mantilla during an audience with Pope John Paul II. It was a rather
feeble gesture but was still enough to see her denounced from the
pulpit and on the letters pages of the newspapers.

An honour for an individual, of course, is just that — recognition of
an individual’s achievements, a high-level pat on the back, a tribute
to endeavours above and beyond the call of duty. Instead of carping and
sniping, shouldn’t we celebrate the honoured individual rather than
obsessing about the origins of the tribute?

In most circumstances that’s just what we do, but when the Great
British Empire is involved that just isn’t going to happen. We are just
not mature enough in our own sovereignty to treat an award from our
friendly, but separate, neighbour with the polite disinterest that it
deserves.

For the same reason, reports that Queen Elizabeth may visit Ireland in
2007 are enough to bring on a fit of the vapours among large swathes of
the population. The conspiracy theorists are even suggesting that
Bono’s knighthood may be part of a softening-up process for that visit,
a theory that sums up the paranoia and suspicion that lingers in the
relationship between Dublin and London. There are any number of reasons
why the honour could be refused. For instance, in recent weeks we have
read evidence of British intelligence collusion in the Dublin and
Monaghan bombings. But to politicise the occasion might also betray a
national insecurity that belies our recent economic and social
progress. Far from being modern and forward looking, it would reveal us
as a state still trapped in the past and grasping at any chance of
settling old scores.

We really should be bigger than that. As one of the richest and most
successful nations in the world, we should accept awards, individually
and collectively, as nothing more than our due and take them in our
stride. This is the highest honour the British have to bestow. Yes,
it’s a bit naff and dated, but the only ones who will look small if we
make a fuss will be ourselves. So we should accept it with the jaded
grace of seasoned recipients, admire the silverware, then stow it on
the cistern top of history and forget about it.

 

[Galeongirl]

thanks for posting that, I totally agree with it

 

[rafmed]

Excelent editorial

 

[hcbiggs2002]

Ah... you gotta love the irish...


read on fellow plebans..


The Sunday Times December 31, 2006

Comment: Brenda Power: Forget the chip, let Bono take it on shoulder

So what precisely is the difference between Bono and God? The old gag
is getting more difficult to answer with each passing day, especially
now that the U2 frontman appears to have added humility to the
mysteries of ubiquity, bilocation, mastery of tongues and omnipotence
that already feature in his repertoire of superhuman powers.

On St Stephen’s Day, he (Bono, not God) turned up at the races, linking
arms with his wife and looking every inch the ordinary punter hoping to
score a few bob for the sales, on a rare day out. If it wasn’t for the
pink sunglasses on one of the greyest days of the year, he’d have
blended right in.

Say what you like about Bono’s musical talents, but the “ordinary Joe
at the races” persona hit the right note, as the tidings of his
impending knighthood had just been leaked to the weekend’s newspapers.
The news that Bono is to join Sir Bob as a Knight of the Most Excellent
Order of the Great British Empire ruffled some less salubrious plumage
across the country last week.

When Bob Geldof got his honorary knighthood after Live Aid, it seemed a
quaintly eccentric gesture by the British Establishment. It was so
wilfully inappropriate it was almost anarchic. The sense that someone
was having a laugh, Sir Bob included, went a long way towards defusing
much of the national begrudgery that attended the honour.

But Bono is different. With Bono, as with Sir Anthony O’Reilly, there’s
that sneaking suspicion that he might actually enjoy it, even revel in
it. Indeed, he might even believe that he deserves it and we can’t be
having that. But the inevitable whingeing from those who believe Bono’s
head is plenty big enough without adding an honorary title to the mix
distracts from the issue the honour is designed to highlight.

Bono has been honoured in pretty much every way possible as an
entertainer and a humanitarian. As well as being weighed down with
Grammys, he’s also received the Légion d’honneur from the French state,
a person of the year award from Time magazine and, best of all, he’s an
Honorary Freeman of the City of Dublin, leaving him at liberty to graze
his sheep in St Stephen’s Green.

He rubs shoulders with the great and the good wherever he goes. The
Pope, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and George Bush are all
delighted to have their pictures taken with Bono for their family
albums. So another honour from another state could be expected to pass
almost unnoticed. But this isn’t just another gong for the mantelpiece.
This one is different.

There is something about the words “great”, “British” and “empire” in
the same sentence that still raises hackles on this side of the Irish
Sea. They’re three words that most Irish folk find difficult to string
together without a snarl. So the thought that one of our own is
planning to bend the knee to the British monarch — even if it is in a
proxy ceremony in the embassy in Dublin — to be bestowed with a
knighthood for services to the empire is pretty difficult to stomach.
Even if it is for services to music and his humanitarian efforts.

Bono should, one strand of the argument runs, tell the Great British
Empire to stick the KBE where the sun doesn’t shine. And given the
number of former colonies where the sun has long since set, there will
be no shortage of possibilities. The more moderate view is that Bono
should have expressed his gratitude for the thought but turned down the
honorary knighthood all the same.

The vehemence of the reaction is extraordinary. A few years ago the
Vatican bestowed an honour on Bono and there was scarcely a peep of
protest from anyone. But at the time he was collecting his award, this
country was awash with tales of clerical scandals and cover-ups. The
relationship with the church was so damaged that some more extreme
voices suggested the Papal Nuncio be summoned to the Phoenix Park and
summarily expelled from the country.

As an eloquent spokesman for the world’s most vulnerable people, Bono
could have taken a stand and turned down that summons from the Vatican
in protest at the rape, torture and incarceration of the poorest and
weakest children of his own country. But I can’t recall anyone making
that suggestion.

Scandals or no scandals, I bet there would have been uproar if Bono had
pleaded a previous engagement on the day of the Vatican ceremony. Just
a few years earlier President Mary Robinson had neglected to wear a
mantilla during an audience with Pope John Paul II. It was a rather
feeble gesture but was still enough to see her denounced from the
pulpit and on the letters pages of the newspapers.

An honour for an individual, of course, is just that — recognition of
an individual’s achievements, a high-level pat on the back, a tribute
to endeavours above and beyond the call of duty. Instead of carping and
sniping, shouldn’t we celebrate the honoured individual rather than
obsessing about the origins of the tribute?

In most circumstances that’s just what we do, but when the Great
British Empire is involved that just isn’t going to happen. We are just
not mature enough in our own sovereignty to treat an award from our
friendly, but separate, neighbour with the polite disinterest that it
deserves.

For the same reason, reports that Queen Elizabeth may visit Ireland in
2007 are enough to bring on a fit of the vapours among large swathes of
the population. The conspiracy theorists are even suggesting that
Bono’s knighthood may be part of a softening-up process for that visit,
a theory that sums up the paranoia and suspicion that lingers in the
relationship between Dublin and London. There are any number of reasons
why the honour could be refused. For instance, in recent weeks we have
read evidence of British intelligence collusion in the Dublin and
Monaghan bombings. But to politicise the occasion might also betray a
national insecurity that belies our recent economic and social
progress. Far from being modern and forward looking, it would reveal us
as a state still trapped in the past and grasping at any chance of
settling old scores.

We really should be bigger than that. As one of the richest and most
successful nations in the world, we should accept awards, individually
and collectively, as nothing more than our due and take them in our
stride. This is the highest honour the British have to bestow. Yes,
it’s a bit naff and dated, but the only ones who will look small if we
make a fuss will be ourselves. So we should accept it with the jaded
grace of seasoned recipients, admire the silverware, then stow it on
the cistern top of history and forget about it.

My thoughts exactly! Thank you so much for posting this!!

 

[Jamila]

It IS nice to find an article printed in the Irish press that doesn't trash U2 and/or Bono.


I really liked the article too.