To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the French magazine Paris Match, Olivier Royant interviewed Bono in Belfast, Ireland.
"...A little by surprise, he entered the room and already tames the space. Bono left the rugby match he was watching in his suite with his wife, Ali, to meet me. Immediately, we are seized by his benevolence and immediate contact, so far removed from the image of a global rock star. This Elizabethan-style palace, with walls adorned with aristocratic portraits, overlooking Belfast Bay, seems a bit pompous to talk about rock and politics. Through large windows come the laughter of a wedding cocktail under a gray sky. Son of a Protestant and a Catholic, Bono shows me on his cell a picture of the olive tree in pot that Pope Francis recently offered him. "He is the symbol of the three religions," he told me. Plant it anywhere, it will grow. "
Paris Match. How do you react to this wave of hatred that has invaded world politics?
Bono.: Our generation grew up thinking, like Martin Luther King, that the world was moving toward more justice, civil rights, gender equality. Here in Ireland, a wall fell. Elsewhere, democracy prevailed, apartheid was defeated. This luminous parenthesis of humanity is nothing compared to ten thousand years of history. Our grandfathers are no longer here to remind us of the tragedies that Europe has known. This wave of alarming elections marks the death of our innocence. Faced with this decline, a tip: stop lamenting, organize yourself!
Do you recognize in these spontaneous movements young people who mobilize for the climate?
It reminds me of our beginnings, when I listened to Public Image Limited songs and felt anger rising up against injustice. Anger is a source of energy.
In your concerts, you hoist the European flag. You have faith in what Churchill called "expanded patriotism": to be simultaneously Irish and European ...
Yes, it's a romantic idea and it's the most beautiful of all. All these different languages to form a single voice. Being European is a thought that must become a feeling. Europe has been transformed into bureaucracy. It must change, reform from within, but it must not be left.
"...A little by surprise, he entered the room and already tames the space. Bono left the rugby match he was watching in his suite with his wife, Ali, to meet me. Immediately, we are seized by his benevolence and immediate contact, so far removed from the image of a global rock star. This Elizabethan-style palace, with walls adorned with aristocratic portraits, overlooking Belfast Bay, seems a bit pompous to talk about rock and politics. Through large windows come the laughter of a wedding cocktail under a gray sky. Son of a Protestant and a Catholic, Bono shows me on his cell a picture of the olive tree in pot that Pope Francis recently offered him. "He is the symbol of the three religions," he told me. Plant it anywhere, it will grow. "
Paris Match. How do you react to this wave of hatred that has invaded world politics?
Bono.: Our generation grew up thinking, like Martin Luther King, that the world was moving toward more justice, civil rights, gender equality. Here in Ireland, a wall fell. Elsewhere, democracy prevailed, apartheid was defeated. This luminous parenthesis of humanity is nothing compared to ten thousand years of history. Our grandfathers are no longer here to remind us of the tragedies that Europe has known. This wave of alarming elections marks the death of our innocence. Faced with this decline, a tip: stop lamenting, organize yourself!
Do you recognize in these spontaneous movements young people who mobilize for the climate?
It reminds me of our beginnings, when I listened to Public Image Limited songs and felt anger rising up against injustice. Anger is a source of energy.
In your concerts, you hoist the European flag. You have faith in what Churchill called "expanded patriotism": to be simultaneously Irish and European ...
Yes, it's a romantic idea and it's the most beautiful of all. All these different languages to form a single voice. Being European is a thought that must become a feeling. Europe has been transformed into bureaucracy. It must change, reform from within, but it must not be left.
You were in Paris on November 13, 2015, the day of the terrorist attacks. How did you live these moments?
Sheltered in our golden cage, our hotel rooms, where we watched television while gunshots rang around the Bataclan. At twenty-four hours, our show Bercy could have been the target of terrorists. I thought, "More than anything, these men hate what I love most in the world: music and women."
Find all of this interview in the exceptional anniversary issue of Paris Match
www.parismatch.com
translation:@mysteriousdistance
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