IT WAS, AT the same time, the best- and worst-kept secret in Irish show business. 

A small crowd started gathering outside Mount Temple shortly after 9am in the hope of catching a glimpse of one of U2′s members, as word filtered out that something special might be in the offing to mark the day that the band celebrated its 50th anniversary. 

The gathered fans weren’t disappointed. Bono and The Edge were photographed stopping to chat and take selfies on their way in to set up mid-morning. 

Meanwhile, the students, delighted to have the day off lessons, were corralled inside classrooms as the final checks were made to the on-stage set-up and to the massive stacks of speakers dotted around the grounds.

Shortly after 1pm, two busloads of journalists were shepherded into the PE hall.

Friends and family – including U2′s former longtime manager Paul McGuinness, artist and ex-Virgin Prune Guggi and RTÉ veteran Dave Fanning – stood and chatted at the back of the yard, before being shown up to a riser at the back of the space for a bird’s-eye view of proceedings. 

Sinéad O’Connor songs were played out at mid-volume throughout lunchtime before, bang on time at 2pm, the band took to the stage to the sound of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out. 

U2, famously, formed in the halls of Mount Temple in 1976 after Larry Mullen, in a move still regarded with mild offence by drummers worldwide, placed a message on the school noticeboard titled ‘drummer seeks musicians’. 

The teenage group flourished in the school’s environs, and have spoken warmly of the teachers and culture at the co-ed school in interviews across the decades. 

“We were encouraged to be individuals,” bassist Adam Clayton said earlier this year.

“We were allowed to rehearse on the school premises on Wednesdays and Saturdays.”

I Will Follow 

Arriving from inside the school building, the four members lined up in a somewhat cramped space on a concrete ledge in the corner of the yard.

The set-up would have made sense to hardcore fans – photos taken during a performance by the band back in 1977 showed them lining up in the exact same order. 

U2 performing at Mount Temple in 1977. U2 U2

Not wasting any time, they launched straight into a song that’s almost as old as the group itself – 1980′s I Will Follow. 

There were some tense (and, admittedly, bemused) looks exchanged among reporters as it became apparent there were serious problems with Bono’s mic early in the performance. 

The gremlins were somehow exterminated midway through the song, however, to cheers from the young crowd. 

“Thanks for showing up,” Bono told the students during a break between songs.

“I suppose you’d nowhere else to go.”

The group switched back and forth between some of their earliest songs and biggest hits throughout their short, loud set. 2004′s Vertigo, which shares more than a few musical genes with I Will Follow, came next, followed by 2000′s Beautiful Day, 1979′s Out of Control and 1991′s One. 

They also gave the first live performance of their new single Silencio.

Bono kept the monologues to a minimum, but again took the time to speak warmly of the group’s time at the school – noting, in particular, how Mount Temple stood out in 1970s Ireland in that there was no “A, B, C, D and E” class. 

As he introduced his bandmates, Larry got a nod as “the man who pinned the note on the noticeboard” and Adam (who was, apparently, something of a freewheeling student) was dubbed “the streaker of the green corridor”.

Closing out their main set, Bono introduced a group of young harpists, violinists and viola players who had been taught via the Music Generation programme, which U2 co-funds alongside the Irish state. 

In what was perhaps the moment of the afternoon, the young musicians struck up a chorus to provide the string accompaniment to the Achtung Baby track. 

The hundreds of Mount Temple students waved their hands in the air to the strains of the song while, at the back of the risers, reporters who had managed to snag chairs from inside the Portakabins balanced precariously to try and get a better view.

The group posed for photos, arms wrapped around each other and with fists pumping the air, before departing the stage. 

Almost as soon as they’d left, however, they returned to close the show with another of their biggest hits – a stripped-back version of With or Without You from 1987′s The Joshua Tree. 

Rich Fury Rich Fury

Time travel

There’s not much footage of U2′s earliest days as a group. 

This was decades before smartphones, of course. And, with the possible exception of Bono, nobody knew that this nascent outfit were going to go on to become the world-dominating U2. 

Their first appearance on national television was in 1978 on RTÉ’s Saturday morning Youngline programme. 

You can find the clip on YouTube. They’re clearly still very much kids. The musicianship is a work in progress but Bono’s stage presence in particular is striking. 

As they throw shapes, attempting to ape their teenage musical heroes like David Bowie and Phil Lynott, there’s a nice moment where Larry attempts to glower moodily down the camera, before breaking into a giant grin and thoroughly ruining any appearance of being cool.

Fast-forward 48 years to a sunny Friday afternoon in Dublin: they’ve certainly nailed the musicianship.

And they’re still just as cool as they’ve ever been.