The ‘poor Irish pleb’ whose father left €2million in his will
Sir Bob denies privileged background in UK court
HOOTS of laughter could be heard all over leafy south Dublin this week when Sir Bob Geldof described himself in a UK court as being ‘a pleb from a poor Irish background’.
At least Geldof was not required to keep a straight face when making his declaration. His extraordinary claim came in a sworn character reference which was read out in court at the libel trial of British MP, Andrew Mitchell who was accused of calling a policeman a ‘pleb’.
‘I am used to being patronised by “my betters,”’ said Geldof. ‘There was no such nonsense from Mr Mitchell.
‘We are an unlikely pair of friends. I came from a poor Irish, not particularly well-educated background and he does not. I am in fact “a pleb” and he is not.’
In the UK, a pleb is an insult that is seen to be used by the rich and powerful to describe people of a lower class.
Many commentators this side of the water are now questioning Geldof’s evidence – given that his origins are, by any standards, far from humble.
The 63-year-old’s lazy south side drawl betrays his background of privilege growing up in Dún Laoghaire and attending one of the poshest schools in the country, Blackrock College.
Born Robert Frederick Zenon, Geldof may have had a sad start in life when his mother, Eve, died when he was eight years old – but it was far from disadvantaged.
The Geldof family home was a three-storey, five-bedroomed house in the landmark Victorian terrace, Crosswaithe Park.
His father, Bob senior helped to set up Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club and left an estate of almost €2.5 million when he died in August 2010 aged 96, after a varied and colourful career.
Originally a chef at London’s Carlton Club and then the Cunard Line, Bob senior returned to Ireland to set up his own company, as a manufacturer’s agent.
In a lengthy eulogy at his father’s funeral, his son described him as an ‘extraordinary man’ with a vast amount of energy who constantly needed something to do.
The future Mrs Geldof was already engaged when they first met, but Bob senior would not take no for an answer and the matter was settled by a boxing match with her fiancé.
They had three children and Bob was very close to his siblings and has remained so. His sister Cleo died in Spain in October following an illness. Geldof’s school reeked of privilege too, whether he liked it or not – which he did not.
These days it costs more than €6,000 a year to attend the school, and Blackrock College is regarded by some a byword for privilege and elitism.
Its alumni include a broad spectrum of successful Irish men including six times Taoiseach and the third president of Ireland, Eamon De Valera, the writer Flann O’Brien, fashion designer Paul Costello and artist Robert Ballagh, not to mention a string of rugby greats including Brian O’Driscoll, Leo Cullen and Victor Costello.
The music journalist Joe Jackson remembers growing up with the Boomtown Rats singer.
‘We were conceived around the same time and for about 20 years we lived within a mile of each other on the south side of Dublin,’ he says. ‘The difference is that Bob lived on the right side of the tracks and I lived on the other side. According to a socio-economic divide that actually is delineated by a railway line, that separates his family home in Dún Laoghaire from mine in Glasthule. Put more bluntly, he was posh and I was poor.’
Geldof’s comments this week are in keeping with a seemingly new trend where aging Irish rock stars dumb down their comfortable middle-class backgrounds. An interview with U2’s Bono recently to promote his band’s new album, Songs of Innocence in a British newspaper, makes reference to the singer’s ‘troubled youth on the streets of 1970s war torn Dublin’.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Geldof said he had no further comment to make on his court statement this week and would not be elaborating on the reasons why he made it.