Why not hand back Freedom of London award?

Dublin mayor accuses Geldof of double standards

BOB GELDOF has been accused of treating Dublin with disrespect after handing back his Freedom of the City in protest – while keeping his Freedom of London.

The singer returned his award last month in protest of Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued membership on the Roll of Honorary Freemen of the City, which was removed in a council meeting last week.

However, the fact that Geldof and the disgraced Burmese leader are also both Freemen of the City of London, and the musician has not demanded to be struck off the honours list there, has been called ‘double standards’ by the people he has accused of orchestrating the vote against him, Sinn Féin.

Geldof was granted the award by the Corporation of the City of London in 2013 and a spokesperson for the city confirmed the pair are both recipients of the honour.

When the Irish Mail on Sunday made Dublin’s Lord Mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha aware of Geldof’s silence on the Freedom of the City of London, he said: ‘It just shows more double standards.’

The Lord Mayor added: ‘He [Geldof] showed disrespect to Dublin in his approach.’

After councillors voted to strip the Nobel Peace Prize winner of her honour on Thursday night – 49 voted in favour while two voted against it, with one abstaining – they also rejected a motion to postpone the official acceptance of Geldof’s returned scroll.

The motion was intended to see if Geldof still wanted to return his scroll after Suu Kyi was removed from the list of freemen.

Suu Kyi’s silence on the ongoing atrocities committed against the Rohingya people has led to a number of one-time supporters, including Geldof and U2, criticising her.

At the meeting this week, the council’s chief executive Owen Keegan said when he met Mr Geldof at City Hall last month ‘it was clear he wanted to hand it back. It was not conditional’.

Returning the scroll effectively crossed Geldof off the list of freemen in a public fashion and councillors weren’t willing to restore the honour after such a public display.

Independent councillor Mannix Flynn said that no protocol existed for an individual to return their award, and it is his intention in the new year to bring a motion to grant the Freedom of the city of Dublin to Geldof a second time.

He was also critical of the handling of Geldof’s revocation by Sinn Féin councillors.

However, the Lord Mayor hit out at Geldof’s handling of the situation, saying that the activist had not approached the council before handing back his award and that if he had, officials would have told him discussions about removing Suu Kyi’s honour were already underway. It remains unclear if attempts to restore Geldof’s honour next year will be successful.

Geldof’s representatives didn’t return requests for comment yesterday.

U2, who previously supported the Burmese leader and wrote the song Walk On for her, had earlier called on Dublin City Council to withdraw her Freedom of the City award.

Bono said her failure to stand up for the rights of the Rohingya was ‘a betrayal of the principles for which she was so revered and for which she received the Freedom of the City’.

The band sent the letter ahead of the council vote on whether to revoke her award, insisting they must have their say ‘given our history with you and with Aung San Suu Kyi’.

Geldof, who says he still wants the honour but rejected it to shine more light on Suu Kyi’s failures, said he is ‘absolutely disgusted’ at how the Sinn Féin-dominated council handled the affair and the suggestion that he might not be offered the award again.

‘Showed disrespect to Dublin in his approach’ ‘It was clear he wanted to hand it back’