Ultimately, the band would chip in €10 million for personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medics in the fight against coronavirus. “Proactively, off his own bat, he said he wanted to get involved in a very particular thing – he could find new ways of trying to source new PPE equipment for Ireland,” says Donohoe. Bono contacted some of the world’s most powerful businessmen to see how they could help source medical supplies out of China. It is soft power as well as knowing what to do.”‘Soft capital’Paschal Donohoe says this soft power flows from the “soft capital” and the intangible Irish qualities that come from the country’s “size and intimacy” where, when institutions are under strain, people who are well connected with each other – outside of government – can come together. “I believe that Ireland does have reserves of soft power but unlike in some other countries, that soft power can sometimes come together spontaneously and the locus of that soft power is not always government in Ireland,” he says.

Source: The Irish Times April 11, 2020 01:43 UTC