The Cranberries “Zombie” is one of those rare protest songs that becomes a big hit. A terrorist bombing drove the irish band to write the song. In March 1993, the Provisional Irish Republican Army set off a bomb in the English town of Warrington that killed two children. The dead were three-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry. The bombing was part of The Troubles, the struggle between mostly Catholic Irish nationalists and mostly Protestant loyalists over the political fate of Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom rules Northern Ireland, The IRA and other militants would like to see the country united and used violence to accomplish that aim.
The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan told Vox: “The IRA are not me. I’m not the IRA. The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not. When it says in the song, ‘It’s not me, it’s not my family,’ that’s what I’m saying. It’s not Ireland. It’s some idiots living in the past.”
The Cranberries were on tour when they learned of the Warrington bombing O'Riordan: “I remember seeing on of the mothers on television, just devastated. I felt so sad for her, that she’d carried him for nine months , been through all the morning sickness, the whole thing and some prick, some air head who thought he was making a point, did that.”
In 1998, the Troubles largely came to an end with the Good Friday agreement.
Source: Spotify - Behind The Lyrics by Genius
