This song is all about the Irish who emigrated to America in the 19th and 20th century. Who grafted hard in a far off land from home, who didn’t have any money in their pockets leaving, didn’t want to leave but were forced to “from diggin in our pockets
for a reason not to say goodbye”. Bono admitted that he lifted the song title from a song by one of Ireland’s seminal bands of the 70’s – Horslips, “The Man who Built America” from 1978, and changed the word man to hands.
This song is all about the Irish who emigrated to America in the 19th and 20th century. Who grafted hard in a far off land from home, who didn’t have any money in their pockets leaving, didn’t want to leave but were forced to “from diggin in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye”. Bono admitted that he lifted the song title from a song by one of Ireland’s seminal bands of the 70’s – Horslips, “The Man who Built America” from 1978, and changed the word man to hands.