Robbie Keane has given a revealing insight into Bono’s house parties

James Fenton

Robbie Keane and Bono, two masters in their respective fields and both dyed in the wool Dubliners so it’s no surprise that their paths have crossed from time to time.

When you’re as famous as Ireland’s record goalscorer Robbie Keane, you can except to be invited to more than a few social gatherings throughout your career. The Tallaght man’s nomadic football journey would have seen him attend soirées from London to L.A and Milan and everywhere in between but as an Irish person, it doesn’t get much bigger than being invited to Bono’s gaff.

Now, you would think that Keano would be used to being put under pressure, having regularly played in front of tens of thousands of people, but it turns out that pre-match nerves are nothing compared to having to make a speech on one the U2 man’s dinner parties.

Speaking on fellow ex-footballer Jimmy Bullard’s podcast Off The Hook, Robbie set the scene of the night he and his wife Claudine turned up at the door of Bono’s Dalkey home for a leaving do before the singer set off on a world tour.

“He’s going away on tour for two years,” Robbie says. “I’m thinking there’s gonna be 200 people at his house. We got there – 14 people. Bono goes to me: ‘Captain, head of the table’ and I’m like ‘what?’

“What he does is he separates people, so you don’t sit beside your wife. Now, if I don’t really know people, I’m a bit shy at the start until I get comfortable. Claudine is great at chatting and she was sitting in the middle of the table.

“Bono’s wife sits beside me, she was lovely. And he had a poet there, he got up and did a little bit. Everyone had to say something. I’m sweating, my hands under the table are absolutely sweating. Claudine got up, no problem.

“I’m next and Bono helped me out with something, he said ‘I heard you went to see Take That last night’, trying to give me a bit of banter. I said “Yeah, it’s probably the best band I’ve heard for a long time!”

The line seemed to break the ice and Robbie went on to speak about how Bono took him into the kitchen to play him his new album. “You know what, he’s one of the nicest, humblest people you’ll meet in your whole life,” Robbie tells Jimmy and that’s a ringing endorsement for Bono if we ever heard one.

The whole podcast episode is a revealing and at times hilarious insight into Robbie’s life and career and you can listen to it in full via this link.