Entertainment

U2 celebrates 50 years with concert at Dublin school

September 28, 2026 1:56 pm

source: Reuters

U2 marked 50 years as a band on Friday by returning to the school where they started playing together as teenagers and delighted current students ​with a concert featuring hits such as ‘With Or Without You’, ‘One’ and ‘Beautiful Day’.

The ‌22-time Grammy-Award-winning band formed in September 1976 after Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note reading “Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band” on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in north Dublin.

Mullen, Bono, ​The Edge and Adam Clayton on Friday sought to replicate one of their early ​shows when they played on the roof of the school’s boiler room ⁠in 1978, the start of a journey that would carve their place in rock ​history.

Hundreds of students, some holding hand-drawn posters saying “It’s A Beautiful Day No School”, finished class ​early and packed the school yard, where they screamed throughout the 35-minute set alongside their similarly enthusiastic teachers.

Article continues after advertisement

“Is that the science lab?” said Bono, dressed all in black, as he arrived on stage and pointed ​to a building in the distance where some teachers watched out of windows and ​recorded the scene on their phones.