U2's most 'Dublin' songs

If I were to put together a list of U2's most Dublin songs, I'd go for:

Running to Stand Still. Obvious choice but has to be mentioned in this thread.

Bad. Unlike most of the other tracks on this list, there are no specific Dublin references in the lyrics - indeed no references to any geographic locations, but it's very Dublin I've always thought.

Dirty Day Not the song itself perhaps but the title is based on an expression popular here among the older generation if the weather is particularly wet, they say: "'tis a dirty day".

Flower Child a not very well-known track , I only heard it myself for the first time when I downloaded the unreleased stuff they put out in 2004. References to 'drink the Liffey dry' and Appian Way (a street in Ranelagh) make it an obvious choice for this thread.

Walk to the Water. I've always considered this one massively underrated but I'm probably in a minority on that. Quite an epic Bono vocal. The lyrics specifically reference Dublin locations, but the song itself is just very....Dublin in a way that I'm not sure I have the chops to express verbally.

I guess that explains why he doesn't sing "the Appian Way". I always wondered about that.

I guess that explains why he doesn't sing "the Appian Way". I always wondered about that.

Yeah it's not the Roman Appian Way, it's a reference to a street in Dublin (named probably after the Roman Appian Way, granted). I'm not sure what the relevance of the reference is. I'm speculating that when Paul McGuinness had an office in Waterloo Road, Bono might have driven down the Appian Way in Ranelagh for band meetings in the early years, because if you were coming from the northside, that's a route you might have taken -  but that's entirely speculation on my part. Alternatively might have been a carnal assignation - maybe Bono in his youth had a girlfriend who lived there, who knows.

A notorious Dublin gangland boss, Martin Cahill, was shot dead on Appian Way in 1994, but I don't think the lyric has anything to do with that, it wouldn't fit the otherwise light and upbeat tone of the track.

If I were to put together a list of U2's most Dublin songs, I'd go for:

Running to Stand Still. Obvious choice but has to be mentioned in this thread.

Bad. Unlike most of the other tracks on this list, there are no specific Dublin references in the lyrics - indeed no references to any geographic locations, but it's very Dublin I've always thought.

Dirty Day Not the song itself perhaps but the title is based on an expression popular here among the older generation if the weather is particularly wet, they say: "'tis a dirty day".

Flower Child a not very well-known track , I only heard it myself for the first time when I downloaded the unreleased stuff they put out in 2004. References to 'drink the Liffey dry' and Appian Way (a street in Ranelagh) make it an obvious choice for this thread.

Walk to the Water. I've always considered this one massively underrated but I'm probably in a minority on that. Quite an epic Bono vocal. The lyrics specifically reference Dublin locations, but the song itself is just very....Dublin in a way that I'm not sure I have the chops to express verbally.

I would never have thought of Walk To The Water (to the point where I assumed all its references were supposed to be American), but agree it is underrated as hell.

The others yes, are more obvious choices.  Running to Stand Still especially.

Quote from: walktothewater on August 11, 2024, 04:08:38 PM

If I were to put together a list of U2's most Dublin songs, I'd go for:

Running to Stand Still. Obvious choice but has to be mentioned in this thread.

Bad. Unlike most of the other tracks on this list, there are no specific Dublin references in the lyrics - indeed no references to any geographic locations, but it's very Dublin I've always thought.

Dirty Day Not the song itself perhaps but the title is based on an expression popular here among the older generation if the weather is particularly wet, they say: "'tis a dirty day".

Flower Child a not very well-known track , I only heard it myself for the first time when I downloaded the unreleased stuff they put out in 2004. References to 'drink the Liffey dry' and Appian Way (a street in Ranelagh) make it an obvious choice for this thread.

Walk to the Water. I've always considered this one massively underrated but I'm probably in a minority on that. Quite an epic Bono vocal. The lyrics specifically reference Dublin locations, but the song itself is just very....Dublin in a way that I'm not sure I have the chops to express verbally.

I would never have thought of Walk To The Water (to the point where I assumed all its references were supposed to be American), but agree it is underrated as hell.

It’s about the least American U2 track I can think of tbh.

Summerhill…North Strand…the Royal Hotel. These are specific and not generic references. I think it’s about his grandfather, who, like the character referenced in the track, made his living painting billboards.

That totally makes sense.

In all honesty I have not heard the song in quite a great many years now, and did not even remember references to the North Strand, Summerhill etc.  I remember the stuff about he said he was an artist, but he really painted billboards, large capital letters... mostly.

Btw, contrary to what some rubbish websites suggest, it’s not ‘the Summerhill’. It’s just Summerhill.

If you are walking from, for example, Dublin City centre to Clontarf or Howth, you walk through Summerhill, then North Strand.

In all honesty I have not heard the song in quite a great many years now, and did not even remember references to the North Strand, Summerhill etc.  I remember the stuff about he said he was an artist, but he really painted billboards, large capital letters... mostly.

Yes indeed. As for the reference to the room in the Royal Hotel with a sea facing view, there was a Royal hotel in Howth years ago. Contrary to what its name suggests it wasn’t  very grand or fashionable, but it would do for a travelling billboard painter or salesman in the 1930s.

‘I walk through walls / I float down the Liffey’

is a lyric from Radiohead’s most Dublin track. A very unsettling number about the time when Thom Yorke, staying in the Clarence Hotel during a tour, had a nightmare that he woke up during the night, went for a walk around his room, and on opening a closet, encountered a shocking visage - a white faced Bono, with his eyes closed, all made up as undertakers would a corpse before a funeral.

Imagine his shock when he discovered that it wasn’t a nightmare at all -  it really was fecking Bono! Playing a prank, assisted, no doubt, by his mates Gavin Friday and Guggi. 


Pleasant dreams, guys and girls.

Quote from: Rupert Pupkin on August 11, 2024, 08:11:24 PM

In all honesty I have not heard the song in quite a great many years now, and did not even remember references to the North Strand, Summerhill etc.  I remember the stuff about he said he was an artist, but he really painted billboards, large capital letters... mostly.

Yes indeed. As for the reference to the room in the Royal Hotel with a sea facing view, there was a Royal hotel in Howth years ago. Contrary to what its name suggests it wasn’t  very grand or fashionable, but it would do for a travelling billboard painter or salesman in the 1930s.

Yes, I remember that... hotel with a sea facing view, what I did not remember was it being the Royal Hotel, which obviously you would be unlikely to see anywhere in America.

‘I walk through walls / I float down the Liffey’

is a lyric from Radiohead’s most Dublin track. A very unsettling number about the time when Thom Yorke, staying in the Clarence Hotel during a tour, had a nightmare that he woke up during the night, went for a walk around his room, and on opening a closet, encountered a shocking visage - a white faced Bono, with his eyes closed, all made up as undertakers would a corpse before a funeral.

Imagine his shock when he discovered that it wasn’t a nightmare at all -  it really was fecking Bono! Playing a prank, assisted, no doubt, by his mates Gavin Friday and Guggi. 


Pleasant dreams, guys and girls.

And Day-vid, not forgetting him (although he might have had better sense than to participate in a prank like that.