Watch Nancy Pelosi read Ukraine poem by U2’s Bono on St Patrick’s Day

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recited a poem written by U2’s Bono for the White House’s annual Friends of Ireland luncheon on St Patrick’s Day.

Pelosi told attendees that the U2 frontman sent her the poem earlier that morning (March 17), which he later wrote on Twitter is something he does every year as tradition.

“Bono has been a very Irish part of our lives,” Pelosi said as she began to read the poem, which Bono described online as “irregular and not funny at all”, and shows that they “stand with the people of Ukraine” amid Russia’s invasion.

Bono’s poem reads:

Oh, saint Patrick he drove out the snakes
With his prayers but that’s not all it takes
For the snake symbolizes
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 saint Patrick’s name now Zelenskyy

The war in Ukraine entered its third week yesterday (March 17).

Meanwhile, in other recent U2 news, Bono has opened up about his dislike of the band’s name as well as their songs and his own singing voice.

Speaking on the Awards Chatter, the Irish rock icon explained that his hatred of his own voice is so intense that he often turns off the radio when the group’s tracks are played.

Opening up on how he “still” doesn’t like U2’s name, Bono said: “I really don’t. But I was late into some kind of dyslexia,” he said. “I didn’t realise that The Beatles was a bad pun either.

“In our head it was like the spy plane, U-boat, it was futuristic – as it turned out to imply this kind of acquiescence, no I don’t like that name. I still don’t really like the name.”

While admitting that most vocal performances make him “cringe a little bit”, Bono allowed himself to concede that 2004 track ‘Vertigo’ was “probably the one I’m proudest of”.

Last year saw U2 release a 30th anniversary edition of ‘Achtung Baby’ which includes a limited edition vinyl and huge digital boxset.