THE face of Princess Diana lit up the giant screen behind U2 last night as the band ended the Dublin leg of its world tour with a musical tribute. The 40,000 crowd applauded warmly and many held lighters in the air as Bono turned to the screen and sang the lines "Sleep, sleep tonight . . ." from the song MLK, originally written as a tribute to Martin Luther King.The second of the group's Dublin concerts went ahead under the shadow of the morning's tragic events in Paris - but rock music has had too many of its own young dead for the show not to go on. Earlier, concert-goers had been among the steady stream of well-wishers leaving flowers at the British embassy in Ballsbridge.The band members made their standard entrance shortly before 9 p.m., leading a caped Bono through the crowd like a prize fighter on the way to the ring, before charging into a breathless sequence of old and new songs.When Bono finally spoke, it was about the Northern talks. He broke off in the middle of another Martin Luther King tribute, Pride, to say: "We wish . . . we pray for Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley, for David Trimble and John Hume." Then, as the song came to a climax, the band stopped playing and let the crowd finish it, in a deafening crescendo.From there on the band seemed to revel in its last Irish concert, delivering a mock-drunken version of Dirty Old Town and leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of Thin Lizzy's Whiskey In The Jar.Local residents, especially those who led the ultimately failed legal challenge to the concerts last month, will have heaved sighs of relief as the last song ended. These were probably the loudest concerts held at Lansdowne Road, with a million watts of sound vibrating around Dublin 4 for the past two nights.
Bono, however, put the controversy behind him last night, saying the band had never felt so much support as over the past few days.Then, apparently again referring to the North, he said: "This is a funny country. We really hurt each other. But this whole thing is all about the future. We want to kiss the future."His forgiveness even extended to former Beatle George Harrision, whose critical comments about U2 earlier this week earned him a sarcastic song dedication on Saturday night. Last night, the same song was dedicated - much more fondly - to the singer's brother.