![]() During this time, over 10,000 bomb attacks were perpetrated in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, in an armed conflict fought between the Provisional IRA, the Ulster loyalist paramilitaries, and the British security forces. The song was written in response to the death of Johnathan Ball, 3, and Tim Parry, 12, who had been killed in the IRA bombing in Warrington, northwest England, when two devices hidden in litter bins were detonated. 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. Parry died in his father's arms in Liverpool's Walton hospital. The two boys had gone shopping to buy Mother's Day cards on one of the town's busiest shopping streets. There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that's why there's that line in the song, 'A child is slowly taken'. We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension. ![]() Dolores O'Riordan in 2017, on writing "Zombie". O’Riordan had "a feeling" that she had to write on a song that reflected upon the event, before the song came to her "subconsciously" midway through the Cranberries' English Tour in 1993. Writing the core chords on her acoustic guitar, O'Riordan returned to Ireland and continued to write the song after returning to her apartment after a night out. The lyrics and chords of "Zombie" were written initially on an acoustic guitar by O'Riordan alone late that night-"I remember being in my flat, coming up with the chorus, which was catchy and anthemic", O'Riordan was to recall. The song structure was created and shaped without hindrance. The hook and the chorus "just came out really fast", then the verses came "quite easily", just as the writing of the lyrics, governed by no inhibitions-"they just came pouring out", she said. O'Riordan took the song into the Cranberries' small rehearsal shed in Mungret, near Limerick city, and it was translated onto an electric guitar. Drummer Fergal Lawler observed that O'Riordan was adamant that she wanted more distortion pedals on the guitars and asked for more strength than usual in drumming. In 2017, O'Riordan said, "It was the most aggressive song we'd written". ![]()
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