Please

This is most likely about the conflict in Northern Ireland. Before they played it on their Popmart tour, Bono said, "Mexico, say a prayer for our country then. Please, please."

In the book U2 by U2, Bono explained that this is about "a certain kid of person you'd meet in the middle-class Dublin suburbs, who are very sympathetic to the IRA paramilitaries and provide the intellectual support base for militant Republicanism. It's people who think ideas are more valuable than people. 'Love is hard and love is tough, but love is not what you're thinking of.' It is a song about terror, really. Are there ever any excuses for it? 'September, streets capsizing, spilling over, down the drains. Shards of glass just like rain...' It was the Docklands bombing in London that it referred to and the breakdown of peace talks in Northern Ireland but after 9/11 it became impossible to sing."

The cover of the single shows four Irish politicians involved in the Northern Ireland peace talks. They are: Gerry Adams, John Hume, David Trimble, and Ian Paisley.