Bob Geldof accepts UCC award and describes himself as 'half-and-half' Cork 

Bob Geldof has told The Echo he is “half-and-half” from Cork.

The Live-Aid organiser was speaking in University College Cork before being presented with an award by the university’s Law Society.

“My mum is from Cork,” he said, remembering his mother, Evelyn, who died at the tragically young age of 41, when he was just six years old.

“Her dad worked at the Examiner for about 50 years, but I never met my grandparents on either side.

“My sister is Cork, my mum and dad were manager and manageress at [a] Crosshaven hotel for a number of years,” he said. When told that counted for Cork citizenship, he replied: “Half-and-half, anyway”.

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof KBE, to give him his full title, first came to prominence as lead singer with the punk-tinged Dublin rock band the Boomtown Rats, scoring UK number one hits with Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays in 1978 and 1979 respectively.

In 1984, he and Ultravox frontman Midge Ure assembled the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief for Ethiopia, with the single Do They Know It’s Christmas? topping the UK charts for five weeks, selling more than three million copies world-wide, and raising over €25 million.

The following year, in July 1985, the 16-hour charity concert Live Aid played at Wembley Stadium in London to 72,000 people and to 90,000 at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

Live Aid had an estimated audience of 1.9b people, or approximately 40% of the world’s then population, and raised over €172m for famine relief.

In 1986, Queen Elizabeth II made Geldof, who is an Irish citizen, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, earning him the nickname “Sir Bob”.

The musician and activist was in Cork for the presentation of the Mutatio Factorem award by the UCC Law Society at a special event in the Boole Library.

The Mutatio Factorem award was founded by former President Mary Robinson, who was the award’s first recipient.

Bob Geldof became the third person to honoured with the Mutatio Factorem award, following actor Stephen Fry, who received the award last year.

Accepting his award, Geldof spoke about his life, career and some of the big moments in his work in music and activism.

This event was supported by the UCC School of Law and chaired by lecturer Dug Cubie.