Northern Ireland

Orange Order museum invite for Bon Jovi following Bono gaffe

US rocker Jon Bon Jovi has been invited to visit Belfast's Museum of Orange Heritage after his recent controversial podcast claims
US rocker Jon Bon Jovi has been invited to visit Belfast's Museum of Orange Heritage after his recent controversial podcast claims US rocker Jon Bon Jovi has been invited to visit Belfast's Museum of Orange Heritage after his recent controversial podcast claims

THE Orange Order has invited Jon Bon Jovi to visit its Belfast museum after being ridiculed over claims that U2 frontman Bono lived in fear of sectarian attacks by Orangemen as a child.

The rock icon, who has sold more than 130 million albums with his band Bon Jovi, suggested during a podcast interview that Bono had faced intimidation while living in north Dublin.

"His upbringing was obviously very different than mine. I mean, I never had the Orangemen walking through my neighbourhood saying, you know, get the Catholic kid and beat him up," he said, adding: "I didn’t have any of that kind of turmoil in suburban New Jersey."

Describing the comments as "hardly worth responding to, because of their fictitious nature", the Orange Order claimed yesterday that they "feed into the republican broken record of demonising unionism and the Orange family in particular."

"Sadly, the gullible and bigoted just parrot this propaganda without question.

"If Jon Bon Jovi is really interested in hearing the story from all sides, rather than making up his own version, we would certainly welcome him to the Museum of Orange Heritage. We'll even throw in a complimentary ticket."

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