Northern Ireland

U2 to perform song about Dublin and Monaghan bombings at Belfast shows

U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena
U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena U2 on their innocence + experience Tour 2015 in Turin's Pala Alpitour Arena

U2 have said they will perform a song about the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings during their concerts in Belfast next week.

The track Raised by Wolves appears on the band's Songs of Innocence album which was released last year ahead of their current world tour.

U2 have been performing the song while on tour and have featured pictures of the 33 people killed in the attacks as part of their stage show.

The track has caused controversy, with former Lord Mayor of Belfast Jim Rodgers saying: "It's a very bad idea and it's most disappointing because they quite clearly haven't thought this one through. There isn't a hierarchy of victims. 

Those bombs were absolutely horrendous and at the time I totally and utterly condemned them.

"Families are still in mourning and they are still suffering through losing their loved ones. But you have to remember that so many people in Northern Ireland have lost those close to them over 40 years of continuous violence."

Asked by Hot Press magazine if they would perform the song at Belfast's SSE Arena, guitarist The Edge said: "I think the answer is that we will, but we will be taking account of sensitivities, for sure, in the way that we stage the show. 

"This is something I started talking to our designers about months ago. This is not in response to comments in the media; we always had this in mind, because we’re aware that sensitivities exist in Belfast. The reason it’s in the show, and will stay in the show, is that ‘Raised By Wolves’, like a lot of the songs on the album, is about personal experience, about an event that we ourselves felt, acutely at the time, the impact of."