Zombie

A furious, anti-war song in which O’Riordan rails against the violence caused by the conflict in Northern Ireland, which made headlines almost every week.

On March 20, 1993, Irish republicans planted one of two bombs in a trash can in downtown Warrington. The explosion killed 12-year-old Tim Parry and 3-year-old Jonathan Ball, and injured dozens of people. The attack shocked and appalled the public in the UK and Ireland. When news of the attack broke, The Cranberries were on tour in the UK, and O’Riordan was riding the tour bus in London.

Bombs go off in random places. It could have been anyone, you know? It was the most aggressive song we’d ever written. “Zombie” was very different from what we’d done before—Dolores O’Riordan

Released in 1994, “Zombie” reached number one on the charts in several countries and on the U.S. rock charts (though it only reached number 14 in the UK), and went platinum in Australia and Germany. At the MTV Awards, the band beat out Michael Jackson and TLC in the “Best Song” category. However, even this achievement paled in comparison when, in 1998, the band was invited to perform the song at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, where Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume were honored “for their efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland.”

The album “No Need To Argue” sold 17 million copies, and “Zombie” remains to this day an example of a socially conscious song that has not lost its relevance in today’s world.