Bono Really Wrote A Poem About Ukraine And Nancy Pelosi Read It Aloud

"Ireland's sorrow and pain, is now the Ukraine. And St Patrick's name now Zelenskyy,” the speaker of the US house of representatives recited.
Nancy Pelosi speaks as Joe Biden listens during the annual St Patrick's Day luncheon on Capitol Hill.
Nancy Pelosi speaks as Joe Biden listens during the annual St Patrick's Day luncheon on Capitol Hill.
NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images

In a statement that will perhaps prompt people to read it more than once, Nancy Pelosi has read aloud a poem by singer Bono about Ukraine during an annual lunch to mark St Patrick’s Day.

On Thursday, the speaker of the US house of representatives told a press conference that during the Annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon in Washington she would be reading verse about the war in eastern Europe penned by the U2 frontman.

Despite even fact-checkers suggesting this was not the case, it came to pass.

Speaker Pelosi reads #StPatricksDay poem by Bono, which reads in part:

"Ireland's sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And Saint Patrick's name now Zelenskyy."

She then introduces Riverdance. pic.twitter.com/NzPY1VP2bN

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2022

For clarity, the poem appears to be an original composition, and not My Friendly Epistle posted on the band’s Twitter feed by Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko, which was originally published in 1845.

For completists, here’s Bono’s poem in full:

Oh, St Patrick he drove out the snakes
With his prayers but that’s not all it takes
For the snake symbolises
An evil that rises
And hides in your heart, as it breaks

And the evil has risen my friends
From the darkness that lives in some men
But in sorrow and fear
That’s when saints can appear
To drive out those old snakes once again

And they struggle for us to be free
From the psycho in this human family
Ireland’s sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And St Patrick’s name now Zelenskyy

In case it needs stating, Bono is likening the legend of Ireland’s patron saint – St Patrick – banishing snakes from the country to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s heroic efforts to drive Russia out of his country.

Once the reading finished, Pelosi introduced a 25th anniversary performance of Riverdance.

Twitter couldn’t quite believe what was happening:

Is there a more cursèd collection of words in the English language https://t.co/UBDxQzdsrt

— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) March 17, 2022

(aside from, probably, the poem)

— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) March 17, 2022

I'm thinking Putin will surrender after Pelosi reads a poem. pic.twitter.com/au9X1ySBFK

— In_God_We_Trust (@TeePal2) March 17, 2022

I'm so blinded by how much Nancy Pelosi sucks that I barely even noted the fact that Bono *texts poems to Nancy Pelosi*.

— Vince Mancini (@VinceMancini) March 17, 2022

trying to decide what’s funnier: bono calling up nancy pelosi and saying “hey I’ve got an original poem for you to read to congress” or nancy pelosi calling bono and asking him to write an original poem that she can read to congress https://t.co/NO8U0e0EKN

— Walter Cool (@KrangTNelson) March 17, 2022
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