{"id":379626,"date":"2026-04-03T07:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379626\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:53:09","slug":"pat-carty-on-u2s-new-easter-lily-ep-surprise-release-of-the-second-batch-of-songs-in-just-weeks-shows-how-great-a-band-they-still-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379626\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Carty on U2\u2019s new \u2018Easter Lily\u2019 EP: Surprise release of the second batch of songs in just weeks shows how great a band they still are"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Introspective new songs follow politically charged release \u2018Days of Ash\u2019 on Ash Wednesday\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"U2 on stage. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tyImages_1051999032.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">U2 on stage. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">I was packing a bag when the phone rang. Deirdre\u2019s name, one of U2\u2019s people, came up. \u201cTypical,\u201d I swore to myself. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the Bono interview I\u2019ve been angling after for years!\u201d Ol\u2019 Bug Eyes finally sees sense the day before I skip town for Easter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">In reality, it was the news that about 40 days \u2013 a number they\u2019re not unfamiliar with \u2013 after the surprise release of the Days of Ash EP on Ash Wednesday, U2 were back again with six more new songs for a Good Friday. But is Easter Lily the Great Agony or a joyous rolling away of the stone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Introspective new songs follow politically charged release \u2018Days of Ash\u2019 on Ash Wednesday U2 on stage. Photo: Getty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[26016,93,61,60,278,169620,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-379626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bono","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-pat-carty","14":"tag-u2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}