IN 1987 U2 were about to embark on the biggest tour held by any band in the United States that year and Irish diplomats were keen to get in on the action. 

So much so that there were promises made between the band and DFA officials and a scramble for tickets among the emissaries. 

The Joshua Tree of that year was the Irish band’s most acclaimed album to date and the tour of the same name catapulted them into a different stratosphere of stardom, particularly in the Reagan-era booming United States. 

As a result, the band was in demand not just from fans around the world but from Ireland’s consulates abroad who wanted to leverage U2′s success into valuable connections. 

These advances were well received by the band, according to previously confidential government documents, which showed that U2′s management were happy to engage in mutual co-operation, even if Irish officials were at times disappointed about the number of free tickets they were provided with. 

The minutes of one meeting in February 1987 are particularly illuminating as they detail a lunch hosted by a secretary for U2′s manager Paul McGuinness with three officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting was described in documents as being “very useful” and held to “discuss possible mutual cooperation towards the benefit of Ireland’s image abroad”. 

The minutes suggested that both parties could benefit from cooperation, with U2 providing some tickets and favours for the DFA, with officials in turn promising to lobby on behalf of U2 for securing a concert slot in a newly reopened outdoor stadium in Sydney, Australia. 

There was even talk that U2 could give a free concert in Paris at the best of Jacques Chirac, who would later become French president but who was at the time the Mayor of Paris. 

The document states: 

In Paris, the Mayor Mr. Chirac was interested in having U2 give a free concert under the Eiffel Tower on 4th July to celebrate the centenary of the Tower. If this came about, up to 400,000 people would attend. Mr. McGuinness expressed himself as being very well disposed to use the occasion to boost the work on the Irish college.

As it turned out, U2 didn’t play the Parisien extravaganza with tenor Placido Domingo and pop music legend Stevie Wonder instead being the main draws of a concert that also included the aforementioned Ronald Reagan. 

U2, or Bono in particular, did have grievance with Chirac eight years later, with the famous frontman calling him “a wanker” on stage at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards after the the French president ignored international condemnation to resume nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific. 

Ticket scramble

Key to 1987′s U2-DFA cooperation was the provision of tickets for the US concerts, which totalled 79 North American shows over two legs of the tour. 

By comparison, the band also played 30 shows in Europe, showing just how big the US audience was. 

In the meeting, it was promised that U2 would “gladly make available a certain number (perhaps 50-60) of backstage seats for the Ambassador or consul in a particular city on the tour.”

However, subsequent correspondence among DFA officials expressed disappointment that the eventual ticket allocation was less than they’d hoped, putting them “in an embarrassing situation” whereby people had been promised tickets that were no longer available. 

One clarification suggested that the number of “50-60″ was across a number of dates in each city rather than each concert, before another telex confirmed that even fewer ticket were ultimately available 

“U2 now wish to limit to 10 per show the number of tickets offered, because they cannot handle the larger number,” according to one message sent to Irish diplomats in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC. 

A response a number of days later read: 

“You will appreciate that there is little can be done about u-turn by band in this matter. Why not ask your contact if you could put a few more than the ten per night on your list if situation is embarrassing?”

[National Archives document reference number: 2025/124/461]