Ongoing History Daily: The history lesson of the Cranberries’ “Zombie”
The Cranberries single “Zombie” is a five-minute lesson in the politics and struggles of Northern Ireland.
“Zombie” is something of a protest song that talks about the fighting between the Irish and the English and the Catholics and the Protestants. The lyrics refer to the year 1916. That was the year of the Easter Rebellion, which was the event that resulted in the formation of the Irish Republican Army and the beginning of The Troubles, a time when more than 3500 people were killed, and tens of thousands of people were killed.
More specifically, the song was written when two young boys died and 56 others were injured in an IRA bombing in 1993, the year before the song came out.
Yesterday’s episode looked at the time Dave Grohl almost became Tom Petty’s drummer.
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