I have no doubt that you have listened to ‘Zombie’ multiple times – so much so that one solid listen would have brought upon the slight realisation that not all was what it appeared to be.

In the song, before lead singer Dolores O’Riordan [who passed away in a London hotel on Monday morning] howls “What’s in your head Zombie? Zomb-ie-ey, ay-ey, ay-ey, aooowwwww “, she sings:

With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are crying

To those of you who belt out the lyrics while drunk at local evening haunts like Aces and Spades, you have probably given little consideration to the inspiration behind those lyrics, so let’s do so now.

Here’s the thing: O’Riordan was singing in response to “the death of two children in an IRA bombing in the Cheshire town of Warrington,” reports BBC:

Three-year-old Johnathan Ball was killed when two bombs hidden in litter bins detonated on a busy shopping street in March 1993. Tim Parry, aged 12, died five days later.

On tour at the time of the tragedy, O’Riordan found herself deeply affected:

“I remember seeing one of the mothers on television, just devastated,” she told Vox magazine in 1994.

“I felt so sad for her, that she’d carried him for nine months, been through all the morning sickness, the whole thing and some… prick, some airhead who thought he was making a point, did that.”

The singer was particularly offended that terrorists claimed to have carried out these acts in the name of Ireland.

“The IRA are not me. I’m not the IRA,” she said. “The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not.

“When it says in the song, ‘It’s not me, it’s not my family,’ that’s what I’m saying. It’s not Ireland, it’s some idiots living in the past.”

Take another listen:

Heartbreak.

“This was a new direction for us. And it would stand out in the set because of that.”

And indeed it did. Released a year after the IRA incident, the song went on to become the “band’s biggest-selling single, reaching number one in Germany, Australia and France; and topping the US alternative rock charts”.

However, O’Riordan’s lyrics did receive some criticism at the time – people called her naive and accused her of taking sides in a conflict she didn’t understand:

“I don’t care whether it’s Protestant or Catholic, I care about the fact that innocent people are being harmed,” she told Vox. “That’s what provoked me to write the song.

“It was nothing to do with writing a song about it because I’m Irish. You know, I never thought I’d write something like this in a million years. I used to think I’d get into trouble.”

The song then became an anthem for innocents trapped by other people’s violence, as O’Riordan would often “dedicate it to the citizens of Bosnia and Rwanda” throughout the 90s.

For those of you who love a good Tiny Desk Concert session, take it away, The Cranberries:

God how I love the Irish.

[source:bbc]