Dara McBride: Bono is a wonderful musician and a great world citizen — but can anyone really make any sense of his latest column in the Sunday New York Times? It's all about the fall of the Berlin Wall and its impact on this "singer," who is of course Bono. He even catches himself writing about himself in the third person — but I don't know if it works. It all gets kind of weird.

Spider-Man’s been saved! That's the word from an inside source on the troubled Broadway musical which features music from Bono and The Edge.

U2’s latest album, "No Line on the Horizon," has sold one million copies, but Bono is disappointed with how the group’s latest offering has performed.

Think you know everything about the Emerald Isle? Think again! Here are 10 facts that just might throw you for a loop.

Lacking in Halloween costume ideas and want to impress your Irish friends? Well look no further than IrishCentral’s Irish Halloween costume guide!

Gavin Friday’s celebrity-filled birthday bash at Carnegie Hall ranks with U2’s current tour as the concert of the 2009. Featuring the rock gods of the last 40 years, it boasted artists as diverse as Lou Reed and Lady GaGa. Friday talks about the fulfillment of a lifetime dream.

In a hugely revealing interview with USA Today, members of U2 opened up about what keeps them motivated and what drives them to keep performing and touring with such innovation and passion.

Irish singing star Gavin Friday, former singer with the infamous Virgin Prunes and a close friend of U2’s Bono, has assembled some of his most famous friends for a very special one night only concert at Carnegie Hall on Sunday night.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Easy! Just ask Gavin Friday who plays there Sunday with U2, Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Scarlett Johansson. It's all part of a charity gig to raise money to fight AIDS.

Irish megaband U2 brought their 360 Tour to Boston on Sunday night, rocking out with a crowd of 60,000. The band’s spaceship-like 150-foot stage, “The Claw,” landed in Gillette Stadium in the Irish-American city.

U2 stars Bono and The Edge turned out for Colin Farrell Monday night in Toronto as the father-to-be launched his new fantasy movie "Ondine."

Help is on the way for the financially plagued “Spider-Man” Broadway musical. Reports say U2 rocker Bono, who along with The Edge wrote the score for “Spider-Man, Turn Off The Dark,” is coming to the show’s rescue by raising the funds necessary to keep it afloat.

The Edge is giving fans a backstage pass to U2's 360 Tour with an exclusive Twitter feed. The U2 guitarist has been posting amazing bird's-eye photos of the group's tour from right behind the scenes.

U2 has shot back at claims that they are hypocritically wasting an exorbitant amount of energy and harming the environment with their “excessive” stadium tour.

There's just one person who has yet to figure out why U2 is the superstar band it is. Bono. The 49-year-old singer says something "very strange" happens when he walks into a room with bandmates Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. and the Edge.

Is “It Might Get Loud” the rock guitar film to end them all? There’s no doubt that U2’s fans will be intrigued to see lead guitarist The Edge finally let in some light on the three decades of mostly magic that comprise the Irish super group.

U2's packed concert schedule has been thrown into chaos after a protest by residents outside Croke Park in Dublin where the Irish band played their three homecoming gigs. Angry residents blocked access to the team of trucks waiting to ferry 56 tonnes of sound and video gear to the group's next two dates in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

U2 will play the first of their three gigs at Croke Park tonight, and fans are flocking from all corners of the globe to see the band play in its hometown.

Looking to save money on your vacation this year? Heritage Island is here to help!

U2 Bono and The Edge are two men of many talents! The Irish rock stars - currently clawing their way round the world with the 360 Tour - are the brains behind the new Spider-Man musical set to light up Broadway next

U2 and the American Ireland Fund have banded together to fund music education in Ireland. U2 guitarist The Edge said the U2 members were lucky to learn music in school and he hoped they could help budding Bonos find their voice.

WITH VIDEO: You'd think that any rock star would relish a chance to get a public embrace from the President of the United States, even if they didn't agree on everything. But not Bono.

Months of preparation and build up will come to an end tonight as U2 kick off their 360 tour at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.

It will be quite an Irish battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut next year, with incumbent Chris Dodd likely to face off against former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley who is running for the Republican nomination.

Ireland soccer captain Robbie Keane and U2’s The Edge are among high-profile celebrity names who will be campaigning for a yes vote in the new Lisbon Treaty referendum set for this October in Ireland.

The family men that make up U2 will call their summer houses in the South of France their home base during the European leg of their U2360 Tour this summer.

Irish chat show host Pat Kenny, host of the "Late Late Show," retired last Friday night and received one heck of a going away gift – an appearance by U2. The band chatted about any number of topics, including, naturally, the upcoming tour which they intend to be groundbreaking in every way.

Think you have it in you to fill Spiderman’s red and blue spandex and sing a U2 song while you’re at it? If so, your time has come!

10 surprising facts about Ireland - guarantee you've never heard 'em before!

Y'know, for a while there, I thought Coldplay finally did it. They seemed poised to steal the crown of world's best band from Bono and the boys with their Grammy Award-winning Viva La Vida; heck, they even absconded with U2 producer Brian Eno to seal the deal! With No Line on the Horizon, U2's newest release that's officially out next Tuesday, the band swipes the crown back and places it out of reach for the next few years. Hard to believe, I know.

There was a time when a record company knew no limits when it came to launching a new artist. The debut record would be carefully inserted into an elaborate lacquered folder with a thick pile of press releases and newspaper clippings as a garnish. That was then, and this is now.

THE Edge, lead guitarist for U2, was the star attraction at a benefit auction at the Hard Rock Café in New York on Saturday in aid of his charity Music Rising, which he created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to raise money for affected musicians in the Big Easy.

The "Icons of Music," auction raised an eye-popping $2.5 million, as bidders from around the world ponied up huge amounts of money for precious items such as a pair of Bono's sunglasses, a saxophone donated by former President Bill Clinton, and best of all, the Edge's prized possession, a 1975 Gibson Les Paul custom guitar which he's used on every U2 tour since 1985.

Forget about American Idol tryouts the hottest new star hunt in town will take place on June 11 in New York City, where auditions will take place for the new "Spiderman" Broadway musical being composed by Bono and the Edge. The event is being managed by Telsey + Company Casting, which says it is "looking for a sexy, female Celtic rock singer between the ages of 20 and 40 for a leading role in a new musical being written by Bono and The Edge of U2." Surely there are plenty of hot Irish ladies out there who can capture the hearts (and ears) of Bono and The Edge maybe you're even reading this piece right now! In advance of the June 11 audition, interested performers should e-mail a picture (snapshot okay) and a resume or bio to Tiffany Little Canfield at tiffany.

IT'S been quite a week for Philadelphia. The local Phillies beat our atrocious New York Mets for a National League playoff spot, and a few days before, Bono was the guest of honor at an event where he was awarded the city's prestigious Liberty Medal, which is given annually to "individuals or organizations whose actions represent the founding principles of the United States." The U2 singer/ activist extraordinaire received his honor from last year's co-recipient, President George H.

SO who's the most important member of U2 according to the ones who matter most - the group's fans? It's not Bono, which may or may not surprise, but rather the honor goes to lead guitarist Edge, whose mastery goes a long, long way towards providing that distinctive U2 sound.

According to a press release we received on Monday, a total of 4,159 fans from all parts of the planet took part in a survey conducted by the fan site @U2, which bills itself as the oldest independent U2 website. (It is, of course, separate and unaffiliated with the band's official site at U2.

The film - and, yes, it was produced with the latest 3D technology - is based on concert footage of the band's last tour and was shot in South America. It made its bow at the star-studded Sundance Film Festival last weekend, and all four band members donned their winter woolies to shill for the project.

Who was on hand for the premiere? Notables such as former VP Al Gore and Sundance founder Robert Redford managed to snag a couple of scarce tickets, as the screening was the hottest event in a town that's right now full of them.

CATHERINE Owens, the Irish visual designer behind each of U2's worldwide tours for the past 15 years, and the co-director (with Mark Pellington) of U2 3D, the concert film about the celebrated Irish rock band that's now playing, first began her work by shaping the look and feel of the band's "ZooTV" tour in 1992.

In a real sense, Owens became a fifth member of the band in the early 1990s, because her background in multimedia (sculpture, video art, sound design, photography) went on to serve as a powerful inspiration for U2's subsequent "PopMart," "Elevation" and "Vertigo" tours.

Working closely with the band for years, Owens became familiar with their artistic sensibilities, and that made her the natural choice to direct U2 3D, the new concert movie about the band, and the first ever film of their show in digital 3D.

THE Sunday Independent in Ireland published its annual list of who's making what over there, and to absolutely no one's surprise, U2 top the list of wealthiest entertainers, with a healthy bank balance of ?900 million. Nice! "The band, which has traditionally split earnings equally among Bono, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, the Edge and manager Paul McGuinness, has begun to divide up its vast portfolio among their respective families," says the Indo. Clearly, the relatives won't have any financial worries in the future!

Coming in second is Michael Flatley, who's said to have ?590 million to his name.

FRESH off the news on their deal with Live Nation, U2 is set to delve into its early catalog and emerge with fancied-up editions of some of its best work. There will be re-mastered versions of the band's first three albums, 1980's Boy, 1981's October and 1983's War, all of which were released by Island Records. The new editions - the re-mastering process was overseen by guitarist The Edge - will be available in single-disc versions or with an extra disc of bonus tracks.

FOR those of you planning to stuff the Christmas stocking with the highly anticipated new CD from U2, which was due to drop in November, you'd better think again. Bono made an announcement on the band's website last weekend that the album won't be ready for release until early next year.

But it's all good, according to the frontman.

Success hasn't spoiled Irish Oscar winning singer/songwriter Glen Hansard. Fresh from his walk up the red carpet in LA, he returned to Dublin to give the coveted golden statue to his mother to show off in the bingo hall. This week the star of the hit indie film Once joins his co-stars on stage for a one night only concert in New York.

BUSY days for Bono, but nothing new there really.

Let's see, in the past week alone he's been the featured speaker in front of 14,000 women at a conference in California, signed on as a writer for The New York Times, entertained at a Los Angeles tribute concert for BB King and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and applied for permission to add a massive addition to his mansion in Dublin.

Bono and the ladies on hand - including the conference host, Maria Shriver, and other speakers like Jennifer Lopez and Heidi Klum - all talked about the power of women.

"When they were little I used to say, 'Turn that blooming noise down.' But now they're pretty good." Gwenda Evans, mother of The Edge, on U2's highly anticipated new album.

The world's most famous twins - at least for the next 15 minutes - Knox and Vivienne, offspring of Brangelina, surely deserve to have A-list godparents, right? If tabloid reports are to be believed - and as we know, sometimes they're not - then the Jolie-Pitt tots will have none other than Bono as their godfather. "Brad and Angie think the world of Bono," a so-called friend of the superstar couple told London's Daily Mirror. "They have been friends for years.

Finally, we've got a release date for the new U2 album, the band's 12th, and it drops just in time for St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday, March 3.

Titled "No Line on the Horizon," U2 fans of all different stripes will be able to select among five different ways to purchase the new music, from high-end to bare bones.

The 3 Dimensions of U2

U23D, the new movie of the world's favorite Irish band shot using the latest 3D technology, wouldn't have happened without the American connection.

Story by Veronica Blake.

The crowd gathering outside Cineworld on a freezing cold night in February is eagerly awaiting the arrival of U2 who chose their home town of Dublin to premiere their new film U23D.

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since U2 toured the globe in a sequined lemon, but the band is commemorating the 10th anniversary of their over-the-top 1997 tour with the DVD PopMart: Live in Mexico City. This has been a widely distributed bootleg tape over the years, with the band releasing an audio CD of the concert to their fan club a few years ago. The DVD is a great piece of live footage with eye popping stage theatrics that, despite some over the top visuals, holds together with the passage of time as a modern day commentary about how consumerism can get out of hand.

According to Hot Press magazine in Ireland, U2, Simon Carmody and Kila have led a collaboration on a special tribute to The Dubliners' legend Ronnie Drew, which was recently recorded in Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin.

Sinead O'Connor, Christy Moore, Andrea Corr, Shane McGowan, Bob Geldof, Damien Dempsey, Gavin Friday, Jerry Fish, Paul Brady, Paddy Casey, Mundy, Chris de Burgh, Ronan Keating, Mary Black and the Chieftains were among the acts that streamed through the studio, according to spies at the magazine, which added that Frames singer Glen Hansard recorded his vocals on a telephone from the Czech Republic.

The song, entitled "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew," is a collaboration, written by the Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, with Bono, the Edge and the former Golden Horde singer and songwriter Simon Carmody.

These days, Bono has been known as much for his global giving efforts as he is for his music. He's a Nobel Prize-nominated activist who uses his considerable star power to shine a light on the plight of Africa.

With the release of a new CD, Africa is now giving something back to him.

There was a music industry report published around Christmas which explained the rapid decline of the box set, the ornately packaged collection that usually made such a great stocking stuffer.

Apparently, consumers were wary of paying $15 for one CD, never mind $60 for a bushel of them, fancy booklets and packaging be damned. Though the report was bleak for the music business, the analyst predicted that the new trend in back catalog marketing would be smaller "deluxe" re-issues that would include rarities, remixes and b-sides that sit alongside the tracks on the original album.