U2 returned to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin on Friday 25 September, 50 years to the day after the musicians who would become the band first got together.
Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr performed for students at their former school, turning its playground into a concert venue for an afternoon. Their set reached from early song I Will Follow to Vertigo and With Or Without You, and included new track Silencio. Young musicians from Music Generation joined the band for One.
The date brought U2 back to the start of their story. In 1976, Mullen put a handwritten notice on a Mount Temple board looking for musicians to form a band. An early gathering at his family home followed on 25 September. The teenagers initially called themselves Feedback, then The Hype, before settling on U2.
Friday’s performance gave today’s pupils a close-up view of a group whose first audience was drawn from the same school community. Bono thanked Mount Temple for the encouragement the band received there and remembered former school counsellor Jack Heaslip, who remained part of U2’s life long after they left school.
The anniversary also brought news of U2’s next release. Their 16th studio album, Carnaval de Luz, is due on 13 November 2026. The 12-track record closes with Torn, a duet with Dolly Parton that U2 say contains her final recorded vocal performance.
U2 have spent decades playing to vast crowds, but this concert brought them back to the smaller setting where four schoolmates first discovered what they could make together.
Read more: U2 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour Belfast and Dublin dates | U2 return to Croke Park | Remembering Dolly Parton | Belfast concerts 2026 guide | Belfast live music venues
Also on Love Dublin: U2 return to the Dublin school where it all began for 50th anniversary gig
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