Zombie
Dolores' Legacy and why it's still relevant today
Good day to you all. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I just haven’t had anything really spark my interest enough to put thoughts down to words. I just don’t believe in churning out rubbish for the sake of it. That though changed the weekend that just passed us (17th February 2024 to 18th February 2024.)
Every now and again, me and my family will all get together, have some drinks and nice food and we will just pick different songs on YouTube whist the kids all play. Sometimes the kids will listen and it’s just a good way to hear different music.
Now before I go any further I want to say that I oppose war. I know that’s funny, being in the Navy, but I joined to travel the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that the world would be in the state that it is today. I knew conflicts happened but not on the scope that it currently is.
Secondly I want to say that in regards to the current conflicts that are happening I don’t care where you fall. Whether you support Russia or Ukraine or Palestine or Israel, I don’t care. What I do care about is the fact that innocent women and ESPECIALLY children are being killed. Right now.
So I’m sitting on a chair at my parents, entertaining my 5 year old niece, enjoying a Guinness and we had let YouTube just do it’s thing and it was now basically picking the songs. This……….certain song came on. I had heard it before a couple of times before but I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard it. I listened to the lyrics and I could feel goosebumps running up my arms. Immediately I knew I had to write about the song.
That song was Zombie by the Cranberries. It is a protest song written by the amazing Dolores O’Riordan. She wrote it in protest and in the memory of two children who were murdered by the IRA during The Troubles.
The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. During the conflict more than 3,500 people died and thousands more were injured. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Unionist paramilitaries killed thousands of people. Over 10,000 bomb attacks were perpetrated by paramilitary groups in Ireland and England.
The song was written in response to the death of Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, both of whom had been killed in the 1993 Warrington bombings, when two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life as a result of head injuries. 56 others were injured, some seriously. Parry died in his father's arms in a hospital in Walton, Liverpool. The two boys had gone shopping to buy Mother's Day cards on one of the town's busiest shopping streets.
Read the lyrics which I will post below.
Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it's not me
It's not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are crying
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie, oh
Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do
Another mother's breaking
Heart is taking over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It's the same old theme
Since nineteen-sixteen
In your head, in your head, they're still fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are dying
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your head, in your head?
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, eh-eh oh, ya-ya
I love the double use of the word “bomb.” It get’s her nicely onto the next line and the fact she says it twice reinforces the fact that two young children died. The keening that she does, is a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead in the Gaelic Celtic tradition, known to have taken place in Ireland and Scotland. Keening, which can be seen as a form of sean-nós singing, is performed in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages (the Scottish equivalent of keening is known as a coronach).
Keening was once an integral part of the formal Irish funeral ritual, but declined from the 18th century and became almost completely extinct by the middle of the 20th century. Only a handful of authentic keening songs were recorded from traditional singers.
The fact that this song is still relevant today, 20 years after it was first released, just shows that the elites of the world don’t have any clue about what to do about anything. I think Dolores, if she were alive today, would be re- releasing this song in order to raise money for charity.
These two innocent faces were murdered. They had no chance to realise their dreams and potential. Think on that and then think of the wars going on in the world today. Since President Biden took power we have war in Europe, war in the Eastern Med, Venezuela is building up it’s forces on the Guyanese border (thats South America.) China still has eyes on Taiwan (thats east Asia). All that potential for death and destruction on nearly every continent on the planet and the same two groups always suffer. Women and children. It needs to stop and I wish I had the power to do so.
Dolores died in 2018 from drowning due to alcohol intoxication. It’s a testament to her skill as a writer that this song is STILL relevant 20 years after release.
Zombie needs to be listened to by more people I think. It needs to chart once again I think so that it get’s put back into the public eye. Please listen to the song. Please listen to the words. Comment below on your thoughts and how it makes you feel.
Oh, that brings back tearful memories…I remember the Troubles and these two children. The fanning of the hatred against Catholics by a certain NI politician/minister whose name I refuse to mention, and the same by the Ira toward protestants, it was a gruesome conflict raging over decades. I wasn’t there, but got the news.
This song is so powerful, gave me goosebumps then, still does.
Thank you for remembering those young lads, wholly innocent…
It's a great song and can be applied in many ways. What the IRA and British went through,how things have shaped up all of it can be applied in different places. The IRA aligned itself with organizations like Hamas and Hezebollah and the Baader-Meinhof Group and guys like Carlos the Jackyl. So to me it almost is protesting war that communist start and perpuate that put innocent women and children at risk. Biden is bought and paid for. It's a super murky soup. Any women or children that are used as shields or violence against them used as a means to incite is something I think Dolores would have issue with I would think. The rich and powerful screw the world up all the time. I was wondering what you had been up to since I figured you were not cool( who is with the bloodless and bloody wars going on and being instigated to bleed the free world dry,) with whats happening and I had kinda worried for you. Nobody likes war. It should never get to that point. Russia/China/Iran and now Venezuela posturing is suspect as hell all at once and you forgot to mention the Chinese making colonization efforts on the eastern side of Africa and Central and S America. Bro our generation shit the bed ideologically. Peace through strength and not letting communist/socialists( commie light) gain footholds is how we're all back here again it's been going on since the beginning of the 20th century and the Cold War never ended. Israel vs Palestine is a proxy war for Iran just like Ukraine and Taiwan will be for the US and its allies with Russia and China. Venezuela is oil rich and commie as hell and opened fire on its protesting citizens, think about it this is about resources on one hand and turning Europe into the Western East, India has had to deal with Pakistan for how long and its a scary dumpster fire Biden and other regimes have seeped us all into for money, food, energy and power. It's absolutely scary and it's absolutely a zombie like way we regular people get churned by the people playing chess when depop is a goal and any means necessary has been game on even long before covid and the opium wars. Psychedelic honey was used by Israel in David's time or Joshua's to weaken an army once and that is ancient history. It's a combination of lethal ideology and poisoned weakened populations that became a method of war after Russia and the US had their Nazis on staff, you guys too, plus the methods Musellouni and Japan used to really cull and demoralize populations began being used but these Empires and have all been fighting forever. It's money and resources and so much more. One can be anti war and pray they never have to fight in one and still be swept up in fights for survival and freedom. I always think of how during ww1 they stopped killing each other on Christmas by just refusing to do it and nobody really won that war. The elites have been really fucking up the World since there's always a new reason, a new side. Peace through strength is the only way. The militaries of the West were weakened for times such as this while electronics lulled everyone to sleep. Women and kids are always the collateral and in more ways that just what we see on the news if casualties of cultural wars and revolutions are looked at. Biden has lost 80k kids plus at the border, suicide rates are up, fentaynl deaths and we have to give a shit about pronouns while it's a divisive tool for emotional blackmail to destroy families worse that the need for two income households in a vice gripped world did during The Great Society roll out. 100 plus years of this shit man. We're all slaves in some way shape or form. It's gut wrenching and crazy making power games and it's sick and sad. I hope to God things don't escalate further but a doubling down of fuckery has been afoot for a long time. God I hope people can just start really being people again. I hope it gets better but feel totally compelled to prepare for the worst.