A stor
Refugee
I think Bono (when speaking in public) speaks what we call Mid-Athlantic Standard, this is a mixture of Eastern North American, British and Irish features and it has been developed in the media, especially by journalists but also by entertainers and businesspeople who work/live jumping from one side to the other of this ocean, just like Bono (listen to most people speaking on CNN for example).
I've watched him on some interviews in Ireland, and there he shows more of his native accent. He hasn't ever got (as far as I've listened to him) the strong Northside Dublin accent Larry can show, his accent has always been softer, I've always thought that it was because of his family accent.
What I find quite funny is how he keeps some very Irish features like pronouncing an -s when the word ends in -t or the aspiration of the wh-, you can even hear these when he's singing and, of course, many idioms.
As some people have said before I don't think he does it deliberately, it's a question of what you're hearing most of your time, in fact I've listened to him saying he speaks with British accent, while he's quite distant from the RP (British "Oxford" pronunciation).
Agreed.....I live in Maryland, my family is from North of Philadelphia and when Bono is in the U.S. His accent is almost identical to mine. Mid-Atlantic Standard.