The emergence of "Zombie" by The Cranberries as an Irish sporting anthem

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158853#Comment_121158853

This is it, for me. It’s a great song and the crowd really belt it out. It was never about “getting in the opposition’s head” but it really has seem to have gotten into a few, very thick, skulls.

It went from Limerick hurling to Munster rugby to Irish rugby. We sung it in Bordeaux after the Romania match, in Nantes after Tonga, Paris after South Africa, and I, myself, look forward to singing it in Paris, again, after the Scotland match.

If anything, I hope that all this SF IRA “backlash” shows the younger generation a little of what’s really behind the curtain and that cuddly uncle Gerry spitting memes on Twitter or the casual sectarianism spouted by the likes of Blind Boy Boat Club and Darren Conway is all papering over some, seriously, bloody cracks.

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158969#Comment_121158969

They weren't any country's forces, no more than Los Zetas are Mexico's forces or ISIS are any country's forces.

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159031#Comment_121159031

It’s played over the PA at the end of the match. ‘Freed From Desire’ was played in the Aviva after the Six Nations win. Really hope they’ll be banging out ‘Zombie’ when it kicks off next season.

It has nothing to do with the opposition.

Dslatt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158927#Comment_121158927

I voted for SF in the last election, I'm a huge Cranberries fan, most people dont care about this supposed victory over the shinners

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158969#Comment_121158969

they were not operating on behalf of Ireland or Irish people (as shown by their polling during their murder spree ) , they were a fringe lunatic and shot through with touts peados and various associated bullys and gangsters

I suspect you understand the offence that claiming the ira were somehow a legit. but think ye can rewrite history in the best sf tradition.

ira were murdering scum 20 years ago now they are just anther organized crime gang

the rest of your post is nonsense

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159081#Comment_121159081

I feel like I'm talking to a person from the USSR who can't understand the changes that happened or doubts the legitimacy of what happened.

It is just interesting to see your world view z there was an old man in a town near me, flew the Union Jack outside his big old farmhouse till his passing on in the 90s.

I sometimes wished I met him, would be just fascinating to meet a person who was still looking at the world from when he was a child in the early years of the last century.

He didn't accept the Guards or the State Army, never mind the National Army.

It is more just to understand the mindset of people like that, of you. It must be driven by more than political views etc.

It is the psychological need that interests me. How was your home life when you were young, was there a permanent sense of chaos or threat?

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159173#Comment_121159173

Very few people have claimed that Zombie was sung by Irish rugby fans as an insult to Shinners. It's mainly Shinners who have claimed that.

jm08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158778#Comment_121158778

I think Northern Nationalists have every right to be aggrieved to be honest as they didn't get the same respect when their children were murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with the British State. I can see how the mother of 17 year old Damian Walsh who was shot by Johnny Adair the day after the Warrington Bombings. She commented that there was no outcry or flowers coming up from the South when he was killed.

My understanding of Zoombie is that it is an anti-war song. It is very apparent if you watch the official video from them as to what it is.

Unflushable Turd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158507#Comment_121158507

France, Italy and Argentina are in the commonwealth?

That may come as a shock to them!

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121157804#Comment_121157804

Glad to see someone with some musical taste enter the discussion. Mind you, I suspect that a lot of people saying how great a song it is are doing so to show their anti Shinner credentials.

crusd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151344#Comment_121151344

I find it unusual that certain elements cannot see that a 32 county Ireland will be a new country where at the very minimum a new anthem and a new Flag should be considered.

My vote goes to:

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159273#Comment_121159273

Why are you singling out Damian Walsh?

Do the families of the other 1,798 victims of the Provos not have every right to be aggrieved that they didn't receive the same attention as the murders of Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry? Do we know who Danielle Carter was?

Do the families of Protestant civilians murdered by the Provos not have every right to be aggrieved that their loved ones' murders didn't receive the same attention from the South as the victims of Bloody Sunday did?

Do the families of Catholic civilians murdered by Loyalists not have every right to feel aggrieved that their loved ones didn't receive the same attention as the case of Karen Reilly?

Unfortunately the fact is that in the 28 year long orgy of murder that was the Troubles, or in any long outbreak of violence, terror or war, certain crimes are going to get more attention than others. That's just the nature of the world we live in.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121158588#Comment_121158588

Fact

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159061#Comment_121159061

I've already said different people were singing it for different reasons.

So now your saying it's only the 'inherent' message of the song that matters?

So your ok then with 'Delilah' being banned?

And people of colour can't use the n-word?

I genuinely don't get your thought process. I'm referring to this other examples to see how the application of your logic might work.

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159218#Comment_121159218

your a fantasist pal .

everything you've posted here is made up

its like the shinnerbots are trying to get another thread shut down

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159438#Comment_121159438

The 30k people who were singing Zombie at the Stade de France were singing it because it came on the PA, they all know the words, and because it's a banger. No other reason.

The song has an inherent meaning. It was written for a reason. That reason was Warrington. I don't know what's so hard to grasp about that.

It's that inherent meaning that has Shinners in a palaver. They've whipped up a Streisand effect with all this hissy fitting and feigning offence.

Your last two sentences are not relevant to the topic.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159228#Comment_121159228

The song started playing about 60 seconds after Ireland had beaten the world champions South Africa. Literally the only thing on the fans' minds was that Ireland had just beaten South Africa.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159385#Comment_121159385

95% of the population don't even know that Zombie is being discussed in this context or any context and a higher % don't even care.

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159218#Comment_121159218

What was the "legitimacy" of Warrington, of La Mon, Claudy, Kingsmills, Enniskillen, Omagh?

Of firebombing pregnant mothers to death? Of abducting the mentally challenged 15 year old son of a Ballymurphy victim and butchering him?

What was the legitimacy of that?

yagan

Only people who want to make it an anti Irish independence song are making an issue now.

Is that other rugby anthem Free From Desire a political statement too?

Anyway considering the brain damage rugby inflicts I think zombie is the perfect brain cell annilation anthem.

JamBur

What a crock of shite, the song was sung because it is a good sing along tune, people were caught up in the passion of the moment. The vast majority see no political innuendo in it. I was at the Romanian game, it was played/sung there, I can guarantee you nobody was goading or loading the lyrics with any hidden meaning. Those objecting to it are the same ones who would be screaming blue murder if anyone criticised their likes.

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159506#Comment_121159506

The last two points show your 'argument' for what it is more like.

Even if those people were only singing the song because it's a great tune (and I've said earlier I think that's why most were) singing it at these matches has now become politicized.

And you can't even say your not happy about that... In your own words...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150460#Comment_121150460

Politics out of sport please.

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159652#Comment_121159652

So you want to censor The Fields Of Athenry too because it's political.

Politics and sport have always mixed. Sport is inherently political. Ireland's Call is there because of politics. Amhran na bhFiann is played in Dublin at rugby matches because of politics. You do understand that, yes?

After Warrington, Gerry Adams lost his seat.

The SDLP, a nationalist party that was against violence, dwarfed SF at the Polls, as they did right up to the vote for the Good Friday Agreement when nationalists gave SF their vote so they would put their guns and their bombs away.

The Cranberries song captured the mood both North and South at the time, the "Not in my name" marches.

SF have become brilliant at PR, and it's funny how it's this that people have become united on in remembering the PIRA atrocities.

And it's just a song with a good riff at a game! As a politician ince said, it's the little things that get ya 😂

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159579#Comment_121159579

We all agree that war is never nice, that the good guys can do things that are wrong and very regrettable.

I think we all accept that the Irish forces were,in general, very adept at targeting enemy combatants, whether that is nearer to 60% rather than 70% is an ongoing debate, either figure is one that most armies couldn't dream of.

Look at the current Russian occupation of Ukraine, it shows why smaller countries must have an ability to defend themselves and take out enemy combatants and their allies.

It still doesn't change the reality of war being hell but like the Russians going West to Ukraine wasn't in the Ukrainian interest, the English sending soldiers west to us, wasn't in our interest either.

Not having a force to defend oneself is not an option for a country.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159350#Comment_121159350

For me the obvious choice for the national anthem would be Mark McCabe's Maniac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSCnDIoaDTM&ab_channel=DTAHREMIXES

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159666#Comment_121159666

There you go with that logic of yours again.

I don't see 'Fields of Athenry' as a political song. As I've said earlier I see it as a romantic sing along tune. Why would I 'want it banned'?

And the jump to Ireland's call is astounding. Was that not brought in to be acceptable to both traditions?

You've decided now that politics and sport do mix, once it meets your political agenda, which it seems is 'sickening the hole' of those that don't agree with you.

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159681#Comment_121159681

Not having a force to defend oneself is not an option for a country.

OK so you're in favour of joining NATO.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159652#Comment_121159652

Feck off. We shouldn't be pandering to the tiny minority of people who object to a song that has been listened to billions of times all around the world by people from all backgrounds. The song, is first and foremost, a massive global hit and one of the defining songs of the 1990s, and a song that was recorded by one of Ireland's most popular bands, who's lead singer died young and has a very special place in the heart of people from Limerick, Munster and Ireland in general.

The fact that some people who already hate rugby because it's a 32 county sport that doesn't force the Ulster players to sing Amhran Na Bhfiann as our only anthem before every game, object to it because they don't like that it criticises their own preferred paramilitary organisation for bombing and maiming innocent people should be completely irrelevant.

The central message of the song is opposed to mindless murder. If that's a political message that you can't get behind, then you have issues (not you personally, but people who object to this song)

The song itself doesn't say anything about the goal of a united Ireland, it doesn't say the Unionists were right. It just says people shouldn't be murdering innocent people in our name.

That's it. Everyone from all walks of life should be able to get behind this message.

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121159704#Comment_121159704

Well The Fields Of Athenry is a political song, it's an overtly political song.

I'm delighted that certain people's holes are sickened by the singing of Zombie, yes. It's absolutely hilarious.