After much popular speculation and rumour, the Innocence + Experience Tour dates for Ireland have been announced a day earlier than multiple sources indicated. The band will perform in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during the second half of November.

U2 are scheduled to perform at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 18 and 19 November. These will be U2's first full tour concerts in the North since their PopMart Tour gig on 26 August 1997 (and the only subsequent off-tour appearance was back on 18 May 1998).

The band will then head to Dublin, Republic of Ireland, for four dates at the 3Arena: 23, 24, 27, and 28 November.

Bono has indicated that the production will need to be modified for these dates, and it appears that a way to do this has now been found. The official announcement includes a quote from Edge that the band's crew "finally cracked the reconfiguring to fit these venues".

These will be U2's first indoor shows in Ireland since their run of four concerts in Dublin at the Point Depot (the smaller former venue on the site of today's 3Arena) at the end of December 1989 on Lovetown's European leg. Lovetown was also the last time before now that U2 had performed more than three concerts anywhere in Ireland on a single tour. As for six shows? The last time that figure was equalled or bettered was the War Tour, with seven shows: six on the December 1982 Pre-Tour (five Republic, one North) and one more in Dublin on 14 August 1983.

U2.com states that presales for both dates begin Thursday, 10 September, at 10am for subscribers in Ireland (both Republic and North); they will run until Friday, 11 September, at noon. Subscribers outside of Ireland will then have five hours for their own presale, while tickets last. U2.com subscribers who have not yet used their presale codes should be able to use them for this sale.

Public sales for all six dates begin next Monday, 14 September, at 9am. Ticket prices range from £30 to £165 for Belfast, and €30 to €185 for Dublin, with a maximum of two tickets per purchaser. As with the rest of the tour, GA tickets will be paperless. €2 million from the proceeds is slated to go to Music Generation.