Has anyone ever been to the Clarence Hotel

[nathan1977]

It's a cool place. Very modern. The last time I was there I met Brendan Fraser in the lobby.

Should I have mentioned that?

[thrillme]

Originally posted by yimou
Just curious.. Do some of you visit Ireland because of U2, or just out of normal tourist interests ?

To be honest, the "bug" to visit Ireland, bit me a long time ago, before I even knew who U2 were. I saw a t.v. commercial years ago, to visit Ireland, a "Cranberries" song was used for it, it showed places in Ireland. Looked like part of the commercial was filmed out of a plane or something, just seeing the beauty of it, but then at 12, you really don't imagine you'd actually visit another country thousands of miles away.

However the real push to visit Ireland, came from some members of the very first version of Zootopia (official fan site at u2.com) who were organising a fan get together in Dublin in 2002, and it sounded like fun.

I missed the fan gathering, but I later went on my own, in 2003, I'd say 5% of my time had anything to do with U2.


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To the original question, I went to Ireland last year with my sister, we visited the Clarence, well we went in, looked around, asked for a brochure, and walked out. It looked very nice on the inside.

This time was about 10% U2 related, on account of visiting the Clarence, Windmill Lane studios, and shopping in record stores for U2 singles. I also visited Galway, must say, I really like the west side of Ireland. Connemara

[beau2ifulday]

Originally posted by thrillme


To be honest, the "bug" to visit Ireland, bit me a long time ago, before I even knew who U2 were. I saw a t.v. commercial years ago, to visit Ireland, a "Cranberries" song was used for it, it showed places in Ireland.

ditto. I don't know if you're in the UK or not, but the song they use on the advert over here is Chicane's Saltwater (the club song that samples the Harry's Game theme), and the imagery they use is spectacular. I think I first saw the advert when I was 9 or 10, and begged my Mum to take me to Dublin every year since.
I wasn't a U2 fan then, so au contraire to what alot of my friends believe, the attraction to Ireland doesn't lie in the fact that they come from there. To be honest, I don't have a huge interest in the various U2 sites around Dublin - I just enjoy the culture of the place.