The reason

Dublin's Samuel Beckett Bridge was closed to all traffic yesterday remained unclear last night, with both Dublin City Council and Garda sources unable to confirm or deny rumours that U2 had finally found what they were looking for in a new single and were filming a portion of their new video in the area.

While some sources suggested that the band was behind the bridge’s closure, others said it had been closed because an ad was being filmed there for either a popular brand of chocolate or a somewhat well known stout.

All that was known for certain was that the bridge was closed early yesterday morning and did not reopen until early this morning.

For much of yesterday afternoon large articulated lorries carrying lighting equipment and rigging lined the south quays – and some of the smaller roads leading to the bridge.

A marquee was also erected on the bridge itself, while a significant private security presence, watched over by at least two Garda patrol cars, pointed to a large scale operation taking place.

Even the Dublin City Council traffic camera on the bridge was shut off for the duration of the filming. It was the only one of more than 50 such cameras which was not working yesterday, suggesting a degree of secrecy which was somewhat unusual.

Filming

“Someone is filming on the bridge, that is all I can say,” said a council spokesman. “I don’t know who it is or what they are filming but this kind of thing happens all the time, it is fairly routine,” he said before conceding that the day-long closure of the bridge was somewhat out of the ordinary.

He said he was unaware that the traffic camera had been shut off on the bridge, and defended the decision to close one of the major crossing points of the Liffey on the day of an All-Ireland semi-final when all rail services into the city were suspended as a result of a strike.

A U2 spokeswoman was not in a position to confirm whether or not the band had taken to the bridge yesterday. However sources did say U2 were in the process of filming a video for at least one of the songs on their 13th studio album which is rumoured to be released as early as next month, a full five years after the last album was released.