Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Pelosi ridiculed for reading a Bono poem about Ukraine at lawmakers’ lunch

‘Putin will start listening to U2 and realize that war is wrong after hearing Sunday Bloody Sunday’

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Thursday 17 March 2022 17:05 EDT
Comments
Related video: US Congress gives Ukraine’s Zelensky standing ovation

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was promptly ridiculed by social media users after she said she would be “be reading a poem written by Bono about Ukraine” at a St Patrick’s Day lunch with lawmakers.

Responding to Ms Pelosi’s announcement, Dan Stewart of the Financial Times quipped “hasn’t the poor country suffered enough”.

“More U2 being put onto our phones without permission,” Chris Geidner of Grid News added, referencing when the U2 album Songs of Innocence appeared on all Apple devices in 2014.

Author Rumaan Alam simply said, “I’m a republican now”.

“This was designed in a lab specifically to infuriate me,” Evan Greer tweeted.

Left-wing pundit Hasan Piker joked, “maybe nukes aren’t so bad. Now I think we SHOULD do a no-fly zone”.

“The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the cringe shall never die,” political science professor Sam Rosenfeld added.

“I think she may be confused,” one Twitter user noted. “The ‘Ukraine’ poem I believe she’s referring to ‘by Bono’ is actually the one U2 posted last week by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.”

On 5 March, U2 posted a rendition of the poem My Friendly Epistle, published in 1845.

“It’s true that Liberal Internationalism has been completely vindicated as an ideology, while Isolationist Nationalism and Far-Left Anti-Imperialism have exposed their failures to the world. It’s also true that we are unbearably cringe,” Oz Katerji wrote.

“I’m embarrassed for everyone involved,” one Twitter user said.

“This is genius. Then Putin will start listening to U2 and realize that war is wrong after hearing Sunday Bloody Sunday,” another account holder added.

Video emerged later on Thursday of Ms Pelosi reading the poem, before introducing Riverdance.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in