Disgusted! Bob’s livid as council takes his freedom
WE know he doesn’t like Mondays – but now Bob Geldof really doesn’t like Dublin City Council.
The singer and activist said he is ‘absolutely disgusted’ that the council voted to remove his name from the Roll of Honorary Freedom of the city – even though he handed back the award first.
The Boomtown Rat returned the honour last month in protest at Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi retaining her award, despite her failure to condemn violence against Rohingya Muslims in her own country.
Geldof, 66, had said he would be happy to keep the honour if Ms Suu Kyi was removed. And in a vote on Tuesday, Dublin City Council agreed to strip the Freedom of the City from Ms Suu Kyi. However, councillors also voted largely in favour of removing Geldof ’s honorary freedom, with 37 votes in favour, seven against, and five abstentions.
A motion to postpone the vote for three months to see if he still wanted to hand back the award was rejected. Lord Mayor Micheál Mac Donncha said Geldof ‘threw’ the honour back so Tuesday’s meeting just confirmed that.
He said: ‘It was his choice. He did so without any prior consultation or discussion with the council on the issue of Aung San Suu Kyi. It wasn’t a case of him threatening to take it on condition it was removed from her.’
But in a statement to RTÉ Radio Liveline, Geldof said he made it clear that if the honour was revoked from Ms Suu Kyi, he would be ‘more than honoured’ to remain a Freeman of Dublin. He also said the vote was a ‘Sinn Féin stitch-up’ against him.
All four members of U2 wrote to Dublin City Council this week urging it to strip Ms Suu Kyi of the award. Myanmar’s embassy in London said it is ‘deeply regrettable’ the council rescinded Ms Suu Kyi’s honorary title.
It comes as a medical charity has estimated at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed in the first month of an army crackdown in Myanmar.
The Médecins Sans Frontières estimate is the highest yet for the death toll from violence that erupted in August and saw 655,000 Rohingya flee across the border to Bangladesh.
Comment – Page 14 lisa.o’donnell@dailymail.ie