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

You're going to awful speculative lengths now to justify you're right to call out child murderers. At a rugby match.

Nobody wants that nonsense in sport.

In so much as sport is always political, fans only want those to be the politics of inclusion.

I'm quite sure not a single soul at that game was trying to do anything to justify Warrington or support child murder, so why would you bring that issue into it?

the constitution act of 1973 wasn't a legal act as it was based on gerrymandering.

so therefore only the 1998 good friday agreement matters in terms of that position.

there as nothing for SF to except as any act pre-the ending of the sectarian state had no basis.

Any suggestions here for a song that nobody will get butt-hurt about?

Maybe "The Boys are back In Town"? The intro is great/immediately recognisable, but it takes over 20 seconds to get to the opening lyrics and a bit more to get to the chorus.

The people singing along after the match weren't trying to make any political statement. "Whataboutery" seems the order of the day in some quarters.

Nominate another song, if you find " ZOMBIE" offensive.

Nominate another song ,if you find "ZOMBIE" not offensive, but feel that there might be even better choices for the after match celebrations/sing-a-longs!

Personally, I enjoyed listening to the crowd belting out "ZOMBIE" after a nerve wracking contest that came down to the final seconds.

Still, as I asked at the start of this post, what song would you prefer, if it was up to you?

How was the constitution act of 1973 based on gerrymandering and therefore not legal?

You make the freemen of the land lot seem rational.

Between that Act and Sunningdale, everything that was achieved in the GFA was there by the mid-1970s.

There is a question about whether the PIRA campaign was justified up until then (and I don't think it was, but prepared to have that discussion), but there is no justification for anything that the PIRA did after that Act, Sunningdale and the comprehensive referendum.

What is wrong with people singing a song to call out child-murderers?

In what world is that a problem?

Even if there were only a handful of people singing the song for that reason, who, other than a child-murderer, has a right to be offended?

It seems you're adamant about wanting to sing a song about a 30 year old murder at a rugby match.

Sing it because it's a great song if you like.

But otherwise I think you should take it elsewhere.

Moving away from that failed neoliberal, privatize everything approach would be a step in the right direction.

But I think it'll take us a long time to get back on track.

Why would you want to do it at a rugby match?

If you're singing it as a singalong, fine.

I'm not offended by the song, I just don't want these politics brought into sport.

I just can't see your choosing to commemorate these murders, out of all the murders in the world in the last 30 years, at a rugby match, as anything other than a political message.

You're attempts to politicize this are very transparent.

I don't think Dreams works as well as an anthem. A crowd could definitely sing along to it alright, but Zombie is much more anthemic in a 'rock stadium anthem' type of way and with that thumping percussion.

Works great for the Limerick hurlers. 😁

I've heard football fans sing Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough' but for me, that doesn't work at all as a sports anthem - too fast a tempo and way too many words.

Zombie works well because of its simplicity and thumping anthemic beat (a bit like Queen's 'We Will Rock You').

Since when is singing against child-murderers bringing politics into sport?

This is a really simple thing, the only people who could conceivably be offended by the singing of this song are child-murderers and those who support them. If they are offended, I don't think any ordinary person gives a f...

Well, I never voted for a CJH led FF for that reason.

I expect Sinn Fein will turn out to be a huge disappointment if/when they do get into government and be unable to fulfill their election promises in any meaningful way. I am pre-disillusioned lol.

Nonetheless you can expect campaigning of the "This terrorist/murder gang will destroy us all!!" right up until the day of the election, instead of addressing the issues that has people wanting a centre-left alternative to FF/FG.

There was some Irish Times writer who wanted to start referring to rugby fans as 'Zombies' from now on. That is cringe. The playing and singing of a pop song is not some major political event.

Its also unfair to rugby fans to make them shoulder carrying an anti-SF political agenda on the unstated assumption that they are all posh people with a liberal anti-Irish Republican viewpoint. Some rugby fans may be apolitical or they may intend to vote for SF themselves(!) - has anyone even considered that?