On his 1972 album, Some Time in New York City, master singer-songwriter John Lennon recorded a song about the ‘Bloody Sunday’ incident – the shooting of 26 unarmed civilians by British soldiers during a peaceful protest in Derry – that had taken place earlier that year. Lennon’s father was of Irish descent, and it has been claimed that the unprovoked shootings affected him so strongly that he even offered to sing at a republican fundraising concert.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2 (1983)
Although U2’s version of the song arrives as a single precisely 11 years, 1 month, 21 days since the incident, the catalyst that inspired the band to pay tribute to the fallen with this song came because of a confrontation with IRA (Irish Republican Army) supporters in New York City. U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” version of the song is designed to transport the listener into 1970’s war-torn Ireland where your present watching the horror unfold as an observer. Their version of accounts are instead inspired by their passive-aggressive approach to the situation with verses like “How long must we sing this song?”, which signifies their anger towards the authorities approach to the situation. However, that verse is immediately followed by ’Cause tonight, we can be as one, Tonight”, which signifies that the door is still open for a peace treaty.
First released on the band’s 1989 Ballad of the Streets EP, Simple Minds’ song ‘Belfast Child’ is set to the melody of the traditional Irish folk song ‘She Moved Through the Fair’. However, its lyrics are about the Remembrance Day Enniskillen bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1987,which killed 11 people and injured more than 60.
The 90s rock group The Cranberries released ‘Zombie’ in 1994, four years before the Good Friday Agreement, an essential part of the Northern Ireland peace process, was reached. A protest song, it was written by lead singer Dolores O’Riordan in response to another IRA bombing in Warrington, Cheshire in 1993, which killed two children.