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Bandmate Adam Clayton said the decision to hold the 30th anniversary tour was influenced by recent world events and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States which has led to “more desperate times”. In 1987, when U2 released The Joshua Tree, Thatcher and Regan were in power with “some very dark forces at work”, Clayton told RTÉ 1’s Ryan Tubridy Show.

“...in some ways we’re right back there at that moment. It’s very hard to predict what the current US president is going to produce but the signs don’t look good.

“It’s a very divided America at the moment. It’s a fascinating but frightening time for the world; the ascendency of Russia and the potential relationship between Putin and Trump. And of course what is happening in the Middle East with Isis.”

“We feel those songs are relevant again. We feel there’s unfinished business to bring those songs back out again.”

Speaking from his home in Rathfarnham where the band recorded The Joshua Tree three decades ago, Clayton referenced the growing fear and uncertainty worldwide which motivated the group to revisit the music and album which “changed our lives”.

“I think it’s fair to say that the process of democracy that has brought Donald Trump to the presidency seems flawed. We naturally would have been democratic in our views. It was more the way Donald Trump was conducting his campaign; he was threatening the press, he was threatening journalists, he was advocating violence on people that didn’t agree with him and he wasn’t prepared to show transparency as regards to his own tax returns.”

“All these things added up to a situation where you questioned whether he really is the right person to lead the country and whether he actually represents the constituency that he claims to represent.”

While Clayton described the invitation from US president Barack Obama to speak at his inauguration eight years ago as “an extraordinary privilege”, he said it was “unlikely” the band would work with the incoming White House administration.

The band has decided to put its Songs of Experience album on hold until the end of 2017 in favour of focusing on The Joshua Tree tour in the coming months.

“In light of what’s happened in the election, we started to look at the songs and where they were going, what they were were saying and thought this could look very strange if we put this record out at the beginning of the year and haven’t taken note of what happened. We want to hold the record back till the end of the year. ”