Bob Geldof is a man who knows a thing or two about organising events. Standing on a sodden stage outside the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday, he revealed that he had tried and failed to give Dublin City Council a few tips on this score.
"I told them don't do it in March in the late Sunday afternoon, for Christ's sake," he said, as the rain fell on the hundreds gathered in the capital to see the Freedom of the City conferred on humanitarian hero Geldof and Olympic gold medal-winner Ronnie Delany.
Dublin's Lord Mayor Catherine Byrne said both men had left their mark on the world - but still the man behind Live Aid insisted it was "daunting" sharing a stage with Olympian Delany.
He told a story about how he was always missing the 7a bus as a teenager growing up in Dublin. "It would go zipping past me and I'd dash after it and the conductor would lean out and say 'Ronnie f**kin' Delany, wha?' How do you share a stage with somebody who has become an expression?" wondered the 53-year-old.
Both wearing spotty ties, the free men cut impressive figures as they took possession of Waterford Crystal globes and scrolls proffering the right, amongst others, to graze their sheep in St Stephen's Green. One a tall, former athlete looking the picture of health in his seventh decade, the other a pinstripe-wearing business man and anti-poverty campaigner with that trademark crop of dishevelled grey hair.
Delany, watched by his wife, children and grandchildren, declared himself "deeply honoured" and reminisced about how his win 50 years ago in the 1,500m in Melbourne caught the imagination of a nation.
Sitting among the guests were Geldof's father, Bob snr (96), his partner Jeanne Marine and his stylish daughters Peaches (17), Pixie (15) and Tiger Lily (9). "We are proud kids, it's very cool," said columnist and TV presenter Peaches, revealing the best thing about the trip to Dublin was staying in "an amazing hotel and eating chips all day".
Despite speculation, Geldof's speech was admirably restrained, with a statement that the Ireland of the 1970s had been transformed from a "brown and pinched little parochial town" the closest he came to a rant.
Bob Geldof: voice for hungry
Bob Geldof was born in Dún Laoghaire in 1951. He attended Blackrock College and became lead singer of The Boomtown Rats in 1975. The band had its first number one in 1978 with Rat Trap and gained international attention with I Don't Like Mondays in 1979.
His first major involvement with charity came in 1984 when a BBC news report on the famine in Ethiopia inspired him to write Do They Know It's Christmas? Geldof put together a group made up of leading Irish and British pop and rock musicians called Band Aid to perform the song and the single was released for Christmas. It raised millions.
In 1985 he organised the Live Aid charity concert, which raised money around the world for Ethiopia.
Another international concert, Live 8, was organised last year by Geldof with U2's Bono, to put pressure on leading governments to abolish Third World debt as part of the Make Poverty History campaign.
Ronnie Delany: running man
Ronnie Delany was born in Arklow, Co Wicklow, in 1935 and later moved to Sandymount in Dublin with his family. He graduated from Villanova University in Pennsylvania with a degree in economics.
In 1956, he became only the seventh man in history to run a mile in under four minutes and won a place on Ireland's team for the Melbourne Olympics. After qualifying comfortably in his 1,500m semi-final, he ran a tactically brilliant race in the final and set a new Olympic record by running the distance in 3 minutes 41.2 seconds. He covered the last 300m in 38.8 seconds and won the gold medal by almost four metres.
He was also the first Irishman to win a medal in the 1,500m in the European championships, in Stockholm in 1958. He retired from athletics in 1962. He was chairman of the National Irish Sports Council from 1978 to 1990. He is president of the Irish Olympians Association.
