Now Ireland's equivalent of the Heritage Council - An Taisce - has denounced U2's plans to partly demolish and redevelop a hotel they own by the River Liffey in Dublin. An Taisce has also demanded a public inquiry into the new "U2 Tower", which at 32 storeys would be the highest building in Ireland. Situated at the mouth of Dublin Bay, the tower will be designed by Sir Norman Foster. An Taisce fears it will blight the Georgian cityscape on the southside of the Liffey.

"Our biggest concern is that the U2 Tower will stick out of the skyline from parts of Georgian Dublin like Merrion Square. It could potentially be an incongruous blot on the skyline on the southside of the city," said Ian Lumley, An Taisce's national heritage officer. Mr Lumley claimed there was no proper environmental impact survey carried out for the proposed project. Nor, he said, had U2 or the planners taken into consideration one of the band's global concerns: the effect of climate change. "From the limited information we have seen about the proposed tower, there is no consideration being taken into the impact of rising sea levels," he said. "This tower is at the mouth of Dublin Bay and yet no provision has been made as to the effect of rising sea levels on an entire area earmarked for more residential living as well as businesses. For all these reasons there has to be an independent public inquiry before this project is allowed to go ahead."

Further up the Liffey there is more controversy about another U2-owned property, the Clarence Hotel, which the band revitalised thanks in part to a tax-exemption scheme in the 1990s aimed at reviving the entire Temple Bar district. U2 plans a €150 million ($250 million) revamp of the Clarence, which Bono has promised will turn it into one of the most spectacular hotels in Europe. This project has been criticised by An Taisce and the veteran environmentalist Mike Smith.

Mr Smith accused U2 of acting arrogantly over the Clarence plan. He warned that if Ireland's planning authority, An Bord Pleanala, allowed the scheme to go through, he would go to court to halt it. "Since 2000 Ireland has had strong protection for listed buildings which are now called 'protected structures'," Mr Smith said. "In the case of the Clarence, the developers' belief that there is an exceptional need to pander to international five-star punters' alleged insistence on underground parking and swimming pools is unlikely to pass muster … If An Bord Pleanala say yes I will go straight to the High Court to block what U2 are planning." He was also scathing of U2's decision to move part of its music operations out of Ireland. "The common good is not served by allowing the richest people in Ireland to build with the benefit of tax incentives, which is what happened to Temple Bar and the Clarence, only to demolish when they get bored," Mr Smith said.

A spokesman for the Clarence Hotel project said that it would "help the Irish economy to retain its reputation as progressive". Guardian News & Media