1Thessalonians 4:13-18 Verses about The coming of Jesus Christ and how we will be reunited with those who have died, namely Bono's mother.
Halhiker halhiker
aol.com (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)
On a simpler level than dealing with religion and his mother, the song tells the story of sectarian violence in Ireland, and the pressures a young man would face to join either the Orange forces or a sect of the IRA. In the middle of the night, a young man is awaken by a knocking at his door, and there's an ominous black car parked outside. The evidence of violence is obvious -- a broken window, a broken door, and a torn curtain -- but the man does not know from where the pressure comes. Is it from Protestant forces attempting to torture his Catholic family in the north, or from an IRA sect trying to pressure him into joining? The man doesn't want to deal with the situation, hence the stressing on coming back tomorrow so that he may sleep, but he wonders that if he ignores the problem, there will be no one else to heal the wounds and scars. Niall Stokes, in Into the Heart: The Stories Behind the Songs, confirms this interpretation: There was a time when Bono used to talk about what was happening in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 80's. In an atmosphere of deepening sectarian conflict and savagery, a knock on the door increasingly became a sinister invitation to accept a bullet in the head. No one knew for certain what was waiting for them when they opened the door, opened the door... . The final lines show his final solution to violence, faith in Jesus, and confirm the links with his mother.
Matt Bridge mbridgebu.edu (13:th of January 2001)
I have a problem giving you an exact source for this. There is one but I can´t remember where I read it. But it was Bonos own words. I read this a long time ago (at least 15 years ago), but it stuck very clearly in my mind.
The song was originally written about a terrorist murder in Ireland. Bono has said that the interpretation about his mother was not intentional at the time it was written, but only after the words were written did he become aware of the fact that he had used the events he remembered from that time in a subconscious level while writing the song, and that the song was therefore also about that too.
David Bouch bouchandborggreenmail.tele.dk (13:th of December 2002)