Wearing a €12 pair of black shoes hastily picked up on Baggot Street, and preferring a tie to a dickie bow, Bob Geldof was last night conferred with an honorary fellowship by what he described as "the Royal College of f ***in Surgeons!"
"I've finally climbed the barrier of posh," he told an audience of business leaders and dignitaries, although the honour will be placed alongside a growing list of those now bestowed upon him.
Following the ceremony, the anti-poverty campaigner and entrepreneur delivered the college's annual leadership lecture, saying his personal motivation came from "trying to find a universe that I would be comfortable in, and if I couldn't find it, then trying to create one for myself".
The man behind Band Aid and the Live Aid concerts is also a successful businessman, with his media companies bringing him an estimated worth of €53 million.
Geldof explained that central to his philosophy remained the idea that "to die of want in a world of surplus is not just intellectually absurd but morally repulsive".
Criticising the German government's reluctance to follow through on its pledge of aid worth €700 million, he said he was proud of Ireland's commitment. "I was thrilled at the Government's 0.7 per cent aid pledge. I felt proud. I wrote to them and told them. Now we can go to other places and tell them 'they can do it, so what about you?'."
Geldof said Europe was struggling with the different values of other continents and was also failing to grasp the opportunity to invest in Africa.
Ireland, he added, could continue to establish itself as an international leader.
"They seem paralysed in the globalised glare rather than seeing the opportunities. Europe tussles with what it is. And, in fact, Ireland is taking advantage of that," he said.
Concluding, he told guests that "if you can marry that which you do with that which you are, something different happens".
