There are no hard figures to look at, but U2 have consistently denied their tax setup is in any way immoral. The question follows the band like a long shadow. Smith adds: “There’s a huge that just see U2, and Bono in particular, as hypocrites, because their tax arrangements are deliberately structured – and he makes no bones about this – so that they don’t pay taxes.” As People Before Profit party TD Bríd Smith says: “Bono is seen as part of that cohort of very wealthy people who avoid paying tax in this country but enjoy the fruits of being of this country.” Ireland was scalded by the global 2008 financial crash communities were eroded by austerity, while the band’s reputation as “tax dodgers” persisted. When you operate on U2’s financial scale, this is a major detail. In 2006, U2 moved part of their business to the Netherlands, where the tax rate on royalty earnings is more favourable for artists. No, it’s another issue that really dogs the band: their tax arrangements.
U2 members plus#
Some cast-iron republicans can point to U2’s ties to British establishment figures – plus Bono’s own honorary knighthood – and call treachery, but in 2017, they’re a small sect. If begrudgery plays a part in U2’s unpopularity, it’s uniquely barbed when it comes to the band.īono believes some of the Irish vitriol can be traced back to the band’s opposition to Noraid, an organisation that funded the IRA during the Troubles. A statue of Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott stands on Dublin’s Harry Street there are sculptures and plaques dedicated to Gallagher dotted throughout the island at which fans can bend the knee. In rock history, artists such as Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher are widely beloved among their countrymen. Liam Neeson, Saoirse Ronan and Conor McGregor enjoy all the glitzy spoils of being famous but have escaped the same backlash. The idea of Irish begrudgery is difficult to gauge. “ a pride in being in the position to take this large object and cut it down to size, which I think is a very Irish, post-colonial phenomenon,” he explains. Harry Browne, author of The Frontman: Bono (In the Name of Power), believes this theory has some credence. In other words, the nation’s dislike of U2 is classic Irish begrudgery – the phenomenon that Irish people are predisposed to feel envy and resentment towards those who achieve a certain level of success. At it happens, Bono himself recounted this fable in a 2005 interview with Conan O’Brien.īono and Larry Mullen Jr performing at the MetLife Stadium last month in New Jersey, as part of U2’s Joshua Tree tour. The second, from Ireland, curses the owner and pledges that one day he’ll wring their neck. The first man vows that one day he’ll live in a home that’s just as opulent. But U2 did very well.”Īt another table, one patron expands on the point that the band’s huge success might have worked against them by telling the well-worn tale of two men looking up at a big house on a hill. “They’re not the Dubliners, the Pogues, even the Cranberries – they all weren’t that big. “We don’t like them because they did well,” adds Karl Devereux. He never takes off those glasses.” (Bono gets a pass on the shades when Downey’s friends point out that the singer wears them because he suffers from glaucoma.) They're not the Dubliners, the Pogues, even the Cranberries – they all weren't that big Maybe it’s because he’s a bit sanctimonious. He does so much for charity and the poor and yet people still do hate him,” says 24-year-old Karl Downey. “I think it’s quite an accomplishment for Bono. Not all can source the root of their feelings, but there’s one thing most do agree on: it doesn’t simply come down to the echoing guitar riffs or grandiose gesturing of their music. Many of the patrons of Grogans pub – a mid-sized bar in the centre of Dublin you could reasonably pitch to tourists as authentically Irish – share a distaste for U2.
But to huge sections of the Irish population, Bono is about as welcome as cold sores and spam email. U2’s upcoming show at the 73,500 capacity Croke Park stadium is sold out. They have their home-town fans, of course.
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