Other-waters

Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch ’em roll away again, yeah

The Diomede Islands (Big Diomede and Little Diomede) are two rocky islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia.

Straddling international borders as well as the International Date Line, the islands, 2 mi. (3 km) apart, are the closest land approach between the United States of America (which controls Little Diomede) and Russia (Big Diomede, also known as Ratmanov Island). Big Diomede Island is Russia's easternmost point, while Alaska's Aleutian Islands extend the United States' land further west.

Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correctly, Behring) (August, 1681 - December 19, 1741) was a Danish-born navigator in the service of Russia, captain-komandor of the Russian Navy known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich.

Bering was born in the town of Horsens. After a voyage to the East Indies, he joined the Russian Navy in 1703, and served in the Baltic Fleet during the Great Northern War.

Uninhabited when first discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, who named it for Helena of Constantinople, the island now known as Saint Helena was garrisoned by the British during the 17th century. It became famous as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile, from 1815 until his death in 1821.

Hold me now, oh hold me now
’til this hour has gone around
And I’m gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen’s land

Van Diemen’s Land is an island near Australia, later renamed Tasmania after the first European who set foot ashore, Dutch sea-farer Abel Tasman. At the time Tasman’s discoveries were thought of little value, but later (1700s) the British moved in and started using both Australia and Van Diemen’s Land as penal colonies … which is exactly what this U2 song is about, an Irishman being sent away.