U2 guitarist The Edge has spent more than six decades living in Ireland. The country is as home to him as any place can be, especially now that has become an actual citizen there. On Monday, the musician, born David Howell Evans in Essex, was granted Irish citizenship. “I guess, you know, I’m a little tardy with the paper work. I’ve been living in Ireland now since I was one year old,” he said, per the Journal. “But the time is right. And I couldn’t be more proud of my country for all that it represents and all that it is doing.”
The 63-year-old described the event, during which thousands of others became citizens, as “a monumental day for all of us.” The process, he continued, took “a couple of years to deal with all the ins and outs,” but was otherwise “actually quite straightforward.” The Edge doesn’t regret not going through with it sooner. “Honestly, there were many moments in the past when I could have done it with just the form to be filled out, but I’m happy it’s now,” he said. “It feels more significant, it feels more meaningful.”
The Edge points specifically to the stream of current events that have elevated tensions and called authority into question across the world as a key source of his Irish pride. “Because of what is going on in the world right now, what Ireland stands for, it’s very powerful,” he said. “We are talking really about showing leadership in the world, supporting our international bodies, the ICC, UN, speaking truth to power. Really important what Ireland is representing right now.”
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He added: “It’s showing real leadership right now in the world, and it couldn’t come at a better moment for me, so I am just so happy to be at this point to be in even deeper connection with my homeland.”
The Edge formed U2 with Bono, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. in Dublin in 1976. Clayton was similarly born in England before moving to Ireland as a child in 1965. He became an Irish citizen in 1989.
