'Sleep like a baby tonight' song lyrics by U2

In “Sleep Like a Baby Tonight,” U2 addresses one of the most disturbing realities of modern Irish history—the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

The song focuses not on the victim, but on the predator. Bono’s lyrics draw a portrait of a man who wears sanctity as disguise. The priest moves through his day—toast, tea, sugar—as if innocence has not been destroyed under his care.

That calm surface is the horror.

“Tomorrow dawns like someone else’s suicide” delivers the central wound. It’s the victim’s suffering—internalized, unseen, and fatal—juxtaposed against the priest’s untroubled sleep.

The song gains further weight when situated in the Irish context. U2’s childhoods were shaped by the Catholic Church’s dominance in schools, families, and public morality. To speak out against the Church was once unthinkable. 

Now, it is essential.

Bono’s falsetto on the track is fragile, nearly childlike. It mirrors the silenced voice of the abused. Against the priest’s peace, this trembling vocal line becomes the only echo of what was lost.

Lines like “Where the church is where the war is” and “No one can feel no one else’s pain” do not only name individual guilt—they implicate the institution. They point to a system that enabled, protected, and denied.

There is no metaphor in this song.

It is direct, accusatory, and moral. The Church, once seen as a source of healing, is exposed as a site of damage. U2 does not offer resolution. They offer exposure.

“Sleep Like a Baby Tonight” is not just about a priest. It’s about a nation betrayed, childhoods erased, and a silence that lasted too long.

U2 turns that silence into song.

'Sleep like a baby tonight' song lyrics by U2

Morning, your toast

Your tea and sugar

Read about the politician’s lover

Go through the day

Like a knife through butter

Why don’t you

You dress in the colours of forgiveness

Your eyes as red as Christmas

Purple robes are folded on the kitchen chair




You’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight

In your dreams everything is alright

Tomorrow dawns like someone else’s suicide

You’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight




Dreams

It’s a dirty business, dreaming

Where there is silence and not screaming

Where there’s no daylight

There’s no healing, no no




You’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight

In your dreams everything is alright

Tomorrow dawns like a suicide

But you’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight




Hope is where the door is

When the church is where the war is

Where no one can feel no one else’s pain


You’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight

In your dreams everything is alright

Tomorrow dawns like a suicide

But you’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight

Sleep like a baby tonight

Like a bird, your dreams take flight

Like St. Francis covered in light

You’re gonna sleep like a baby tonight

-

From the Songs of Innocence album released September 9 2014. That date is poignant for U2 as that is the date Bono's mother Iris died.

Read the lyrics to The Miracle.

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