Band Aid inspired by campaigner's efforts in famine-era Skibbereen, Geldof to tell history festival

Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof will be speaking at the West Cork History Festival. Picture: RTÉ

Bob Geldof is to tell audiences at the West Cork History Festival this weekend how the depiction of famine conditions near Skibbereen inspired Band Aid.

The legendary musician says Band Aid's tactics to highlight famine in Africa in 1980s mirror the way a 19th-century campaigner described the horrors of famine at South Reen near Skibbereen to ignite a response from British authorities.