The Tragedy Behind the Hit Song Zombie
By: Grady Bolding
Tags: Northern Ireland, History, Terrorism, The Cranberries, Music

The Tragedy Behind the Hit Song Zombie

A flower atop the River of Life memorial fountain on Bridge Street. Courtesy: John Hopkins / Alamy Stock Photo.

In October 1994, an alternative rock single became a battle cry for innocents caught up in bloody struggles worldwide. As part of their second album, the Cranberries’ “Zombie” came to be known for its haunting lyrics, jangling electric guitar, and the distinct yodel of its lead singer, the late Dolores O’Riordan.

O’Riordan, who wrote the lyrics herself, noted it was the most “aggressive” song released by the band, and the piece still carries a visceral impact given the tragedy which inspired it.

On the night of February 23rd, 1993, the city of Warrington, Cheshire, England, was rocked by a bomb on Winwick Road. A fireball turned the night sky red after a fuel container exploded at the Warrington gasworks.

The culprits behind the attack were terrorists affiliated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, which sought the expulsion of all British forces from Northern Ireland and the unification of its six counties with the remainder of the island.

The PIRA played a crucial role in the “Troubles” that had plagued the region since the 1960s, and the attack in Warrington was only a prelude to the tragedy that was about to unfold.

Almost a month later, on Saturday, March 20th, Warrington’s town awoke to a seemingly ordinary day. It was the eve of Mothering Sunday, and hundreds of locals gathered on Bridge Street, the town’s main shopping center.

Among those present were three-year-old Jonathan Ball and twelve-year-old Timothy Parry.

Jonathan Ball was entrusted to the care of Samantha Thompson, then 13, who took him out to shop for a card for his mother. Timothy Parry was shopping with friends for a pair of football shorts, having joined his school’s football team at Great Sankey High School.

Meanwhile, 23 kilometers West, the Samaritans charity group in Merseyside received warning of a bomb planted outside an unspecified Boots store. Authorities mistakenly assumed the threat was intended for a shop in Liverpool, prompting evacuations in the wrong city.

Back in Warrington, Bridge Street came to life with shoppers. Jonathan Ball walked alongside Samantha Thompson, who held his hand. Timothy Parry shopped with two friends as Thompson and Ball came up the street.

At 12:27 pm, a debris cloud erupted outside a Done Bookmakers shop. The first explosive device had detonated in one of the cast-iron waste bins lining Bridge Street.

As smoke rose over the street, panicked locals fled for their lives. Tim Parry and his friends ran out from a store to see what was happening. Samantha Thompson held Jonathan Ball close as she too looked towards the source of the blast.

Amidst the mayhem, a second explosive device ticked away in another waste container — this time outside the Boots shop. A full minute passed before the waste container exploded. Metal shards flew in all directions, and a cloud of smoke enveloped the entire area. When it cleared, fifty-six bystanders lay wounded on the pavement.

Authorities and paramedics drove into a virtual war zone. Locals fled the area on foot while others staggered amidst the chaos. The most seriously injured were immediately taken to Warrington District General Hospital.

Little Jonathan Ball was one of them.

After the second blast, Samantha Thompson instinctively carried him to safety. The unresponsive Jonathan was taken from Samantha, who fell unconscious due to stomach and leg wounds. Upon waking a few days later, Samantha learned that Jonathan had succumbed to shrapnel wounds an hour after the detonation.

Ball’s funeral would be held on March 26th, a day after the passing of the bombing’s second victim.

At the height of the incident, a single individual was photographed lying unconscious near the point of detonation. Timothy Parry had been in the blast’s direct path, receiving numerous shrapnel wounds to the head. Parry would undergo multiple surgeries and a transfer from Warrington Hospital to Walton Hospital in Liverpool.

For five agonizing days, Parry’s family watched as the teen hung on through life support. Though showing signs of limited brain activity, his vitals began to diminish on March 24th. Tim passed away the next day after his life support machine was switched off. His father Colin was by his side until the end.

Unlike previous bombings, the events in Warrington generated significant outrage throughout the public. The PIRA’s intention in targeting Warrington — which had no military or political targets — was to coerce the British people to pressure London into withdrawing from Northern Ireland. The deaths of two children on March 20th resulted in a devastating setback, however.

Across the United Kingdom, civic and community groups organized benefits for the bereaved, along with peace marches to call for an end to the violence. Other groups formed coalitions to create bridges between Britain and Ireland.

Around that time, a new rock band was busy touring the country. After passing through Warrington, the Cranberries’ lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, recalled:

At the time Zombie was written…There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin — that’s why there’s that line in the song, ‘A child is slowly taken’. We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard — I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that’s why I was saying, ‘It’s not me’ — that even though I’m Irish it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension. It’s so different now. If you told a teenager now what it was like back then they wouldn’t believe you, but it wasn’t such a long time ago.

The Irish-born O’Riordan personally wrote the lyrics and strummed the cords while living in her Limerick flat. The song itself would be recorded in Dublin, and an equally powerful music video would be filmed in Belfast, the epicenter of the Troubles.

“Zombie” would be released in the fall of 1994 as the lead single to their second album, No Need To Argue. In a few short months, the song topped the charts in four countries while catapulting the Cranberries into fame.

The song drew awareness to the Warrington incident, along with other tragedies worldwide. Dolores O’Riordan openly dedicated “Zombie” to young victims in Bosnia and Rwanda in subsequent years. What started as a passionate response to a tragedy became a call-to-arms in times of political or social upheaval, especially where young children were victims.

To date, the culprits of the Warrington bombing of March 20th, 1993, remain at large and anonymous, but it is this song that ensures that the youngest victims of the tragedy, and others like them, are never forgotten.