Ok.. now it is completely cleared up.. from Bono's own words:
Bono reveals that Running to Stand Still is inspired by the view from his childhood home in Cedarwood Road, as lush fields gradually gave way to the Ballymun flat complexes. Having seen struggles in places as far away as Ethiopia and El Salavador, the memory of witnessing drug addiction at first hand meant his mind would always return to the flats. “Sweet the sin/ But bitter the taste in my mouth/ I see seven towers/ But I only see one way out.”
Ok.. now it is completely cleared up.. from Bono's own words:
Bono reveals that Running to Stand Still is inspired by the view from his childhood home in Cedarwood Road, as lush fields gradually gave way to the Ballymun flat complexes. Having seen struggles in places as far away as Ethiopia and El Salavador, the memory of witnessing drug addiction at first hand meant his mind would always return to the flats. “Sweet the sin/ But bitter the taste in my mouth/ I see seven towers/ But I only see one way out.”
http://thedubliner.typepad.com/the_dubliner_magazine/2007/04/a_social_histor.html
April 20th, 1991