The peace theme wafted through the entire Belfast U2 gig last night as Bono and the boys unified 40,000 Northerners in a sea of love. The fans went wild as U2 pranced onstage at about 9 p.m. Bono entered in a boxer's robe. The Edge wore an oxygen mask.
"It was a peace concert. It was essential," said one fan, bowled over by the immense spectacle of thousands of people in the divided North rocking together in a ceasefire heaven.
"It's a great thing to be one but I think it's even better to respect those who are different. Don't you?" Bono told the crowd just before playing their last song, One.
"Stop fighting and start talking please," said Bono before singing Where The Streets Have No Name.
U2 went into karaoke mood with Elvis's Suspicious Minds and dedicated the tune to the Northern Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, Sinn Fein's president Gerry Adams, DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley and all politicians in the North.
One superb hit for the fans was another of U2's peace songs, Pride - In The Name Of Love.
U2 are obviously miffed over the controversy in Dublin regarding the staging of their concert. Belfast organised the Botanic Gardens gig within a few weeks. "Thanks for taking us when our own city didn't," Bono told Belfast to uproarious applause.
Most of U2's older songs got the best reaction from the Belfast audience, with songs like Even Better Than The Real Thing, New Year's Day and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.
Staring At The Sun was the most popular of U2's new stuff while Bullet The Blue Sky was the most spectacular with a pyramid of light rising above the Belfast sky. An aeroplane flew through the light.
It takes a big band to persuade the North's security forces to clear air traffic control for such a sight.
The lemon was superb. Stripping the yellow cover around the 40-foot lemon revealed a huge mirror ball which was driven on a railway track into the centre of the crowd.
As the lid on the glass lemon lifted, revealing U2, Belfast's Botanic Gardens erupted in ecstasy.
U2 bought the crowd in its fantastic Popmart exhibition.
This was definitely a gig of proportions Belfast had never seen before. It mesmerised the crowd and unified a people who had only before seen such crowds at political demonstrations and rallies.
The security forces kept a very low profile and there was very little trouble or drunkenness which some people had expected.