LAST UPDATE | 23 Oct

BOB GELDOF HAS said he would have “walked” the presidential election.

He was speaking to The Journal today at TU Dublin at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of The Boomtown Rats’ first gig, which took place in Bolton Street Technical College on 31 October 1975.

Over the summer, Geldof had been linked with a run for the Áras.

Last month, he said he had a conversation with Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin on the topic but that the conversation was short because Martin had already chosen former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin as his party’s nominee.

Gavin ended up withdrawing from the election after reports that he owed €3,300 to a former tenant.

Speaking to The Journal, Geldof was asked if he had any regrets about not putting himself forward for the presidential election.

Geldof remarked that while he doesn’t have any regrets he would have “loved the fight”.

“I think I’d have walked the fucking thing,” Geldof added. “I think I would have won.”

He also said that the campaign hasn’t been “very inspiring”.

“They’re both very capable, very nice people,” said Geldof in reference to Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys.

“I’m sure they’ll do a great job, it’s not the hardest job in the world.

“I think I’d have been really good at it.”

Geldof declined to comment on who he’ll be backing in tomorrow’s election.

Bob Geldof and Pete Briquette return to TU Dublin's Bolton Street campus to unveil a commemorative plaque marking 50 years since the band’s first gig Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

Speaking last month, Geldof had insisted he was never serious about running for the Áras.

He had been linked with a potential run and Martin acknowledged he had a conversation with Geldof about the potential of him standing for Fianna Fáil in the presidential election.

Geldof last month said that this discussion with Martin did not progress very far, as the Taoiseach had already chosen Gavin. 

“People who are fairly high-powered in Ireland rang me and said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said ‘No’. I said, ‘Literally, I have no time’.

“But they said, ‘will you talk to the Taoiseach?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course I will’. And he got the same lobby saying, ‘Will you talk to Geldof?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, of course I will’.

“So Micheál called me and I said, ‘What would you think about Bob Geldof being the candidate for the Fianna Fáil party?’ ‘I think it would be great,’ he said, ‘But I’ve already chosen someone’.

“I said, ‘That’s the end of the conversation Taoiseach, thanks very much’. And that was it.”

Geldof added that he wouldn’t have had the time to comply with the official requirements of getting on the ballot –securing the backing of either 20 Oireachtas members or four local councils.

“I didn’t want to do that,” he said last month at the Sky Arts Awards in London.

I simply wouldn’t have had time.

“And then the issue is, would you have wanted to do it? It’s seven years so, you know, my kids are here, my missus is here, my homes are here, I’d miss London, the band is here. I wouldn’t be able to play.

“Would it be interesting? Yes, up to a point, though.”

Today’s event

Geldof unveiled a plaque on the front of the Bolton Street college with bandmate Pete Briquette before a public interview at the venue. 

Geldof and Briquette spoke about their early career highlights in the Rats. Geldof said when they first started playing small shows people looked at them “like we’d arrived from the moon and we had, Dublin”.

The Bolton street campus saw the birth of their name The Boomtown Rats when, in the middle of their show there in 1975, Geldof wrote the name on a blackboard in the room. Geldof said this show was the “first sign of admiration” he’d ever received.

They also spoke about how they inspired other Irish artists like U2 and Sinead O’Connor. Geldof said Bono had seen The Boomtown Rats at a festival and described the late O’Connor as “a great genius and a great friend”. 

Three of the original Boomtown Rats line-up were students at Bolton Street Kate Henshaw Kate Henshaw

The Band Aid founder also spoke about a variety of crises around the world, saying he shares in a sense of “dismay, disgust and despair” at “purposely starved children in Gaza”. 

He also said the war in Ukraine “sickens him” and called Russian president Vladimir Putin a “fucking brute”.

“This stuff crowds your head when you play, and it did back then”, he added.

Geldof concluded by reflecting on his career: “To have lived our lives, like this, to have made our living from what started scrappily with your back to the audience in this room 50 years ago, it’s f**king weird.”

With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper